Rotating Electromagnetic System for Railway Track Crack Detection

The aim of this paper is to provide an alternative methodology, high reliability, in order tomonitor, exploiting non-invasive techniques, railway track. In this particular case study, the presenceof structural defects is assessed through an innovative system. The proposed approach provides theuse of rotating magnetic field. Within this framework, the Eddy Current Techniques (ECTs) havegreatly increased their importance for their capacity to detect the magnetic field variations caused bythe presence of material alterations. Whilst the researches in this field propose various solutions to thedetection of flaws (in surface and subsurface), a still open problem concerns the difficult detection ofdefects due to the geometrical complexity of the structure and the particular orientations of the crack.Particularly, this contribution proposes an approach based on Finite Element (Finite Element Method,FEM) for the modeling of railway tracks, in order to obtain a rapid and precise assessment about theirintegrity.