An initial feasibility study to develop a wayside cracked railroad wheel detector

A cooperative research effort between a major US railroad and a firm specializing in nondestructive testing equipment was conducted to determine the feasibility of finding cracks in the rim of steel railroad wheels. Wheel service failures, failure data and past efforts to find defective wheels are discussed as background information. The study found that defects machined into an actual railroad wheel rim at the tread are easily found in a laboratory setting using ultrasonic immersion bubbler probes. It was found that shear waves give better detection sensitivity than do longitudinal waves. An outline of future work plans, with a final goal of a shop and/or wayside cracked wheel detection system, is described