In the field of railway infrastructure monitoring, standard inspection techniques may fail in revealing defects or unusual features, and some components may not receive close up examination if, for example, access is difficult or operating conditions do not permit.  

Distributed sensing offers a unique opportunity in long-term Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). In fact, analyzing the dynamic deformation of the rail track induced by train passage, several parameters can be retrieved simultaneously, such as:  

 

• real time temperature & deformation of the rail track, also useful to prevent landslides and disasters;

• axles counting;

• train axles mutual distance;

• train weight in motion;

• train speed and acceleration;

• wheel flat monitoring.