Development of an FPGA system for parallel processing of railway non-destructive testing data

Zhang, Zhenhe (2014). Development of an FPGA system for parallel processing of railway non-destructive testing data. University of Birmingham. M.Res.

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Abstract

Cracks in rails are bad news; they cause accidents and cost money due to delays, as well as incurring repair costs. Inspection of tracks is required in order to find small cracks before they become dangerous. Early detection could also allow repair work which needs maintenance possession on railways to be planned. Non-destructive testing (NDT) is commonly used in rail crack inspection. Alternating Current Field Measurement (ACFM) is one of the latest NDT techniques to be used in crack measurement. This technique is able to detect surface breaking cracks in metals and measure them with proper processing of the non-destructive testing data. In the first part of this dissertation, the current limitations of inspection using ACFM techniques will be laid out. The content that follows describes a high-speed data processing chain for non-destructive testing data, as implemented using an FPGA development board. Multiple ACFM probes are used in practice to cover the surface of the track. Meanwhile, the data collected are parallel processed within the FPGA device. Here, the latest progress and the achievements of this project will be shown using proposed structure diagrams and initial results.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.Res.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.Res.

Supervisor(s):