An advanced ultrasonic technique, sensors and systems will be developed to perform the volumetric examination of present and future alumino-thermic rail welds. The RAILECT device will provide the only means of detecting significant defects, including lack of fusion, shrinkage, in the welded joints. The system will aim to have the following features:

• A rapid clamp on system
• Automatic deployment of the probes
• Quick interpretation of data and rapid analysis
• Classification of welds with criteria for a go / no go decision

The project will enable significant technological progress to be made in a challenging area that has seen little development work to date. The new ultrasonic system will provide defect imaging and analysis at much greater convenience and speed than currently exists.

Strategic Objectives Addressed

• To determine the performance of alumino-thermic welds in the presence of defectdefects through material property characterisation tests and Engineering Critical Assessment (ECA) calculations
• To develop and validate ultrasonic models determining the ultrasonic beams interaction with defects and the weld metal.
• To design an ultrasonic system containing phased array and conventional multi-probe systems with a combined output.
• To produce a prototype system consisting of:
  
  
  1. A manipulator that will place the ultrasonic probes at optimum positions on the complex geometry of a rail profile for full volumetric coverage of the aluminothermic weld.
  2. An ultrasonic system constructed from series of multiplexers and a new output display method suitable for the sizing analysis required;
  3. Automatic sizing of flaws by means of the combined time domain analysis of ultrasonic signals;
  4. Software to compare the sizing and the ECA and give an output to sentence the weld.
• To validate the final prototype by carrying out laboratory and field trials.