Measurements of a railway line above the substrate strengthened with slurry walls

This unique research aimed to investigate the fatigue performance of the railway lines above the strengthened substrate. The strengthening slurry walls were made of a new material: fibre reinforced concrete mixed with the ground. Vertical and horizontal EpsilonRebars were installed inside the walls, and optical fibres were glued directly to the steel rails. The measurements were performed statically and dynamically during millions of cycles to observe long-term effects.

DFOS Sensors Installed: EpsilonRebar

Project challenges

How to apply non-invasive diagnostics in demanding historic structures?
How to get precise measurement data to detect local damage and imperfection?
How to measure detailed strain profiles over the entire height of the brick masonry wall?

Benefits of using the DFOS monitoring system

Distributed measurements of strains, cracks and displacements at the same time
Detection of local events like cracks in walls or local wheel effects in rail
Detailed scientific data for new material design procedures and optimisation
Static and dynamic measurements during long-term fatigue research

Results of using the DFOS monitoring system

The most important part of the research was focused on slurry walls – based on horizontal and vertical strains, the cracks morphology of the walls was fully reflected. However, exciting phenomena were also observed on the steel rails, including tension and compression zones and local effects of wheel pressure.

Technical specifications

16 400 measurement points
164 m of sensing path
16 x EpsilonRebar, 8 x DFOS
long-term fatigue tests

Example results

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John Doe

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