A system for nondestructive evaluation of railroad rails, includes a carriage including a plurality of wheels movably supporting the carriage on the rails, a source of vibration mounted on the carriage and connected to transmit vibrations of a preselected frequency to test regions on the rails through the wheels to cause an increase in temperature of the rails at locations of flaws in the test regions, an infrared detector for recording thermal images of the test regions to detect the increase in temperature of the location of the flaws, a controller connected to actuate the infrared detector to record the thermal images of the vibrations impacting the test regions, and store the thermal images recorded by the infrared detector.

An acceleration device includes an actuator configured to displace a mass in a reciprocating motion at a desired frequency, a mount configured to hold a device, such as an accelerometer device, and at least one spring connecting the mount to the mass. The actuator is used to apply a force to achieve resonance. The actuator may comprise a voice coil motor, wherein the voice coil motor includes a permanent magnet and an armature and wherein said armature comprises part of said mass. The actuator applies a periodic force to the mass. The periodic force may be a sinusoidal force. Preferably, the applied force is aligned with a resulting velocity of the mass. The mount may include a test socket to which the device is electrically connected. The spring may comprises one or more flexure elements. The acceleration device may be used with a handler device to connect and disconnect the device to and from the mount. Optionally, the handler device includes an environmental chamber surrounding the mount.

A rotating machine abnormality detection device and a rotating machine abnormality detection method according to the present invention are designed to detect an abnormality in a rotating machine including a rotary member rotatable about a predetermined axis, and detect an initial abnormality in the rotating machine based on first measurement data obtained by measuring a vibration in an ultrasonic wave band caused by the rotary member. A rotating machine according to the present invention includes the rotating machine abnormality detection device.

A tuned mass system has a bulk mass acted upon by an excitation amplitude and a reaction mass coupled to the bulk mass. A resistance-to-motion controlled coupling mechanism associated with the reaction mass is configured to proportionally modulate independent of excitation force such that the relative phase of the bulk mass and the reaction mass is substantially constant throughout an extended range of excitation amplitude. The resistance-to-motion controlled coupling mechanism is a Variable Aperture Reciprocating Reed (VARR) Valve in one embodiment, and operates as a passive mechanism. In other embodiments, active resistance-to-motion controlled coupling mechanisms are employed.

A vibration visualization element includes an optical member that retroreflects light or electromagnetic wave. The optical member includes: a fixed section, relative positional relationship of which with respect to a measurement object is fixed; and a movable section movably supported by the fixed section to allow relative positional relationship with the fixed section to be changed by application of an acceleration to the fixed section in a predetermined direction. The fixed section and the movable section are configured such that, according to the change in the relative positional relationship between the fixed section and the movable section, a reflection direction of the light or the electromagnetic wave is changed to change a luminance of reflected light in a retroreflection direction or an amount of reflected electromagnetic wave in the retroreflection direction.

A method for stabilizing a track having sleepers supported on a track ballast and rails secured to the sleepers, includes using a stabilizing unit which is connected to a machine frame that can be moved on the rails and has a vibration exciter and rollers that can roll on the rails. The vibration exciter generates in particular horizontal vibrations which run transversely to the track longitudinal direction. The course of a force exerted onto the track by the stabilizing unit is recorded over a vibration path during a vibration cycle by sensors. At least one parameter is derived from the course by an evaluation device and is used to evaluate the stabilizing procedure and/or the quality of the track ballast. A device for implementing the method is also provided.

An object of the present invention is to provide a dynamic characteristic measurement device capable of accurately measuring dynamic vibration characteristics of a rubber isolator and the like in a high-frequency vibration range. A dynamic characteristic measurement device according to the present invention includes a base, a support part that is placed above the base so as to be capable of floating via an air spring, an electrodynamic vibrator that is provided on the base side of an object under test mounted between the base and the support part and vibrates the object under test, and a load washer that is provided on the support part side of the object under test and measures a dynamic load applied to the object under test. Here, a crosshead of the support part is shaped such that a resonant frequency is at least 3 kHz.

Devices, systems, and techniques are described that relate to the monitoring of various types of components in industrial systems. These include battery-less monitors that run on power harvested from their environments, systems for acquiring monitor data for the components in a facility, and/or techniques for processing monitor data to reliably determine the status of individual components and other system parameters.

A method for determining an arrival-time of a rotor blade that includes attaching an RF reader to a stationary surface and an RF tag to the rotor blade. Time-of-flight data points are collected via an RF monitoring process that includes: emitting an RF signal from the RF reader and recording a first time; receiving the RF signal at the RF tag and emitting a return RF signal by the RF tag in response thereto; receiving the return RF signal at the RF reader and recording a second time; and determining the time-of-flight data point as being the duration occurring between the first time and the second time. The RF monitoring process is repeated until multiple time-of-flight data points are collected. A minimum time-of-flight is determined from the multiple time-of-flight data points, and the arrival-time for the rotor blade is determined as being a time that corresponds to the minimum time-of-flight.

A vibration test bench for electrodynamic-suspension magnetic levitation trains and a testing method using the same. The vibration test bench includes an adjustable track mounting surface, a track base, a guiding track and a simulated levitation device. The track base includes a first track base and a second track base. The first track base and the second track base are respectively provided at two sides of the adjustable track mounting surface. The guiding track is arranged at a bottom of the track base and can be embedded in the T-shaped bolt mounting grooves on the adjustable track mounting surface to move. The simulated levitation device is arranged on the track base and is configured to levitate the magnetic levitation train between the first track base and the second track base.