3 ms·
It wouldn't help for rail already installed, but I wonder if you could insert two corrosion-resistant pins in the rail at some standard distance apart. The pin
by swimfar 4y ago
It wouldn't help for rail already installed, but I wonder if you could insert two corrosion-resistant pins in the rail at some standard distance apart. The pins would be installed when the rail is at its "neutral stress temperature". Then you could use some Go/No Go gauges to quickly check if the rail has expanded or contracted. By measuring the distance you could get a more accurate assessment of the stress state. The accuracy required might be too much, though.
It's an interesting problem. It's simple in theory, but may not have a perfect solution.
- salty_biscuits 4y agoPart of the problem is that even the state of stress at installation isn't known very precisely. I basically did some pre work on a similar idea. Working through if you could track the displacement of sleepers could you figure it out. Problem is the extension in nominal range is linear and there isn't a simple way to work out where zero is.