Guided wave propagation characteristics in the rail with a crack defect

This paper presents a study of guided wave dispersion characteristics and propagation properties in rail with a crack. Due to the geometrical complexity of the rail cross-section, the traditional analytical solution to the wave propagation in rail is not feasible. Spectral finite element method is described to calculate the guided wave dispersion curves. 3D finite element (FE) numerical simulation method is used to analyze the guided wave propagation in the rail. Fixing excitation point location, the waveforms reflected by the surface crack in rail are explored with the variation of the crack depth. Observing the received waveform in the case of asymmetric excitation, we find that the two anti-symmetric modes overlap accompanying a little wave packet behind them, which is caused by the defect. The deeper crack will cause the greater wave packet amplitude, which provided a tool for quantitatively detecting defect.