Condition based maintenance enables cost savings, higher availability and improved safety. To this end, information on the current status of relevant components is required, which is usually gained from sensor data. A railway freight car is a challenging application for sensor instrumentation: There is no energy supply on board and environmental conditions are hostile for electronic equipment. TrainSense is a self-powered smart sensor system that enables the Internet of Things for freight cars. A robust energy harvesting system enables a fully autonomous operation under the conditions of railway freight service. The system was developed in a collaborative project of technology SMEs, research organizations and a railway operator. Several short- and long term trials demonstrated the capability of the system to withstand the environmental conditions while acquiring and analysing sensor data for condition monitoring of the wheel sets.

1. © Fraunhofer LBF
Archivierungsangaben
TRAINSENSE
Self-powered sensor solutions for efficient train maintenance
TrainSenseTM

2. © Fraunhofer LBF
TrainSense
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Rail transport
 Rail is by far the safest and greenest way of transport
 Over 700.000 freight cars in operation over Europe
 Hard competition against road transport

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TrainSense
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Maintenance as a cost driver
 Commonly periodic maintenance schedules
 High cost for unnecessary maintenance
 Long downtimes
 Potential safety risk

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TrainSense
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“Operation of rail tank cars usually results in low mileage. Therefore
benefits in costs savings can be expected if maintenance orients on
the actual technical condition of a wagon and simultaneously keeps
the high safety level of rail logistics.“
Martin Ernst, Senior Project Manager, BASF SE, Rail and Site Services
Maintenance as a cost driver

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TrainSense
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High Maintenance Costs due to Flat Spots
 Cause: locked wheel sliding on a rail (i.e. due to locked brakes)
 Damage: Part of the wheel becomes flattened
 Effects:
 High impact loads that may result in further damages at the freight car
 Excessive noise emission
 5-10% of all freight cars have to undergo maintenance due to flat spots every year,
causing additional maintenance costs of 3.5M€ p.a. (source: Deutsche Bahn)
ByBobo11(Ownwork),https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFlachstelle.JPG

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TrainSense
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Sensor Application for Condition Monitoring
 Sensors monitoring the current condition of
critical parts need to cope with:
 Harsh environmental conditions
 No power supply on board
 Retrofitting option necessary

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TrainSense
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Trainsense - Self Powered Smart Sensor
Smart Sensor
 Data acquisition
 Signal Processing
 Data storage (RFID)
 Wireless transmission
 Energy storage and management
Fully encapsulated design
 Resistant to harsh environmental
conditions
Energy Harvesting system
 Inertial piezo generator
Bogie
vibrations
Bending
beam
Tip Mass
Piezo
element

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TrainSense
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Application to wheelset condition monitoring
 Power generation from vibration at the bogie
 Vibration measurement for flatspot detection
 Temperature measurement for hotbox detection
 Cable connection to external data acqusition system only for
test and validation during prototyping stage needed

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TrainSense
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Retrofitting concept
 Replacement of the axle box cover
 No wires
 No batteries
 One system per wheel/wheelset

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TrainSense
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Data acquisition and processing
0
2
4
6
8
10
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35
Acceleration[g]
Angle segment
Wheel without flatspot (4L)
0
2
4
6
8
10
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35
Acceleration[g]
Angle segment
Wheel with 20 mm flatspot (3L)
 On-board data analysis
 Extraction of relevant information
 Reduction of transmitted data
 Test with damaged and undamaged wheels
in actual operation of freight cars

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TrainSense
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30-<40kmh-1
40-<50kmh-1
50-<60kmh-1
60-<70kmh-1
70-<80kmh-1
80-<90kmh-1
90-∞kmh-1
3.01-5.46 g +1 +1
5.65-7.72 g +1
7.91-9.98 g
10.1-12.2 g
12.4-14.5 g
14.7-16.0 g
Data storage and transmission
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
Wheel Angle [°]
AveragedVerticalAcceleration[m/s
2
]
Averaged Acceleration Series
Train Speed: 35 km/h
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
Wheel Angle [°]
AveragedVerticalAcceleration[m/s2
]
Averaged Acceleration Series
Train Speed: 60 km/h
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
Wheel Angle [°]
AveragedVerticalAcceleration[m/s
2
]
Averaged Acceleration Series
Train Speed: 80 km/h
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
Wheel Angle [°]
AveragedVerticalAcceleration[m/s
2
]
Averaged Acceleration Series
Train Speed: 100 km/h
Sensor data preprocessing
algorithm
RFID data transmission
Company ground
On-board condition monitoring
Contingency data table
Output data transmission
+1 +1 +1

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TrainSense
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Summary: Technical Features & Benefits
 Measures stable from a range of train speed between 30 km/h and 100
km/h and a repetition interval of 10 minutes.
 Detects wheel-flats from a width of about 10 mm.
 Provides stable power supply from constant input vibration of minimum
20 mg at 50 Hz.
 The maximum time to read and reset data from data storage is about 450
days.
 Provides two-way contingency data table with two variables, train speed
and maximum correlated acceleration caused by defects on the tread of
the rail wheel.
 Integrated energy friendly 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4 microcontroller to
calculate the defect characteristics of the tread of the rail wheel.
 3-axis MEMS accelerometer, temperature sensor, hall sensor
 Piezoelectric Vibration-Energy-Harvester provides energy conversion with
a long service life.

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TrainSense
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Further potential application scenarios
Bearings
Suspension
Brakes
Payload
Tracks

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TrainSense
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Fast adaptation to applications by model based
development
 Measurements of operational vibrations with rugged equipment
 System simulation allows for evaluation of designs against target performance
 Hardware-in-the-loop and environmental testing in the laboratory to minimize time
for time-consuming field tests
 Rapid prototyping with pre-configured, adaptable modules for generators and smart
sensors
Efficient development of reliable, self-powered systems
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
BZ: gerade, 80km/h
Frequenz [Hz]
Amplitude[m/s²]
unbeladen
beladen
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
BZ: gerade, 90km/h
Frequenz [Hz]
Amplitude[m/s²]
unbeladen
beladen
Operational
vibration
measurements
Testing of components
and subsystems
Rapid implementation of
prototypes
System simulation and
evaluation

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TrainSense
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 Trainsense was developed in the framework of the project ESZüG: Energieautarke
Sensorsysteme zur Zustandsüberwachung von Güterwagen (ESZüG)
 Duration: 03/2013 - 02/2016
 Funding: BMBF, Projektträger VDI/VDE-IT
 Project Partners:
 Cognidata GmbH
 ts3 – the smart system solution GmbH
 Invent GmbH
 TU Berlin, Institute for Land- and Sea Transportation
 Fraunhofer LBF
 BASF S.E.
Acknowledgments

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TrainSense
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Fraunhofer LBF
 Research Institute for Structural Durability and
System Reliability
 Main business areas
 Transport and Automotive
 Aerospace
 Shipbuilding
 Industry
 Applied research for the industry and SMEs
 Funded projects
 Direct contract research and services
 500 employees
 Close research association with TU Darmstadt
 System Reliability and Machine Acoustics
 Macromolecular Chemistry

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TrainSense
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Structural
Durability
Smart Structures System ReliabilityPlastics
Fraunhofer LBF
Materials Processes
System
Integration Validation
Lightweight
design
Function
Integration
Safety Reliability

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TrainSense
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Basic Technology
Research
Research to
Prove Feasibility
Technology
Development
Technology
Demonstration
System / Subsystem
Development
System Test
& Operations
Contract research
Services for industry
Cooperation with Fraunhofer LBF
From fundamental research to marketable products
 Publicly funded projects
 EU, BMWi, BMBF,…
Initial research
 Application of proven
methods and procedures
 Structural and system
analyses
 Consultation
 Qualification of skilled staff
…
 Applied research
 Bilateral R&E cooperation
 Feasibility studies
 …
TRL 1
TRL 2
TRL 3
TRL 4
TRL 5
TRL 6
TRL 7
TRL 8
TRL 9

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TrainSense
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Contacts
Dr. Dirk Mayer
Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System
Reliability LBF
Bartningstr. 47, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany
fon: +49 6151 705-261, fax: +49 6151 705-388
dirk.mayer@lbf.fraunhofer.de
Michael Koch
Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System
Reliability LBF
Bartningstr. 47, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany
fon: +49 6151 705-413, fax: +49 6151 705-388
michael.koch@lbf.fraunhofer.de
Marcus C. Wiedemann
ts³ - the smart system solution GmbH
Managing director
Westring 72, 64711 Erbach, Germany
fon: +49 6062 260 77 – 11, fax: +49 6062 260 77 – 21
mwiedemann@ts3gmbh.de
Daniele Stenico
mobile +49 176 82 331 448 , work +49 89 79 03 09 74
daniele.stenico@hotmail.com