Test Verification and Application of a Longitudinal Temperature Force Testing Method for Long Seamless Rails Using FBG Strain Sensor

Abstract

In order to evaluate the health status of continuous welded rail accurately, a deduction on the FBG sensing principle has been made with regard to the temperature variation of test specimens under different constraint conditions. A long seamless rail testing solution and its on-site application are designed based on this deduction. According to the verification experiments of sensing principle inside, the effect of the reference temperature on the FBG temperature and strain sensitivity coefficient within −30°C~30°C is not higher than 0.05%; the maximum relative error of single point between the tested and theoretical results of test specimen under constrained condition is 3.2%; and the maximum relative error of slopes of fitted straight lines based on the tested and theoretical results within the entire test temperature range is 2.3%, verifying the deduced FBG sensing principle with regard to the test specimen under constrained condition. The maximum error of the longitudinal temperature force between the on-site tested results and calculated results in long seamless rails is only 6.1 kN, the corresponding rail temperature variation is 0.3°C, and the accumulated error is controllable within 5%.