METHOD FOR ULTRASONIC TESTING OF THE BOLTED RAIL JOINTS ZONE Russian patent published in 2023 - IPC G01N29/04 

FIELD: railway engineering.

SUBSTANCE: ultrasonic testing of the bolted rail joints zone. Two or more inclined electro-acoustic transducers are installed on the tread surface of the rail, oriented along the longitudinal axis of the rail in opposite directions with the possibility of reflecting ultrasonic vibrations from the rail base, during the control the transducers are moved along the rail emitting ultrasonic vibrations, in the given timing zones, echo signals reflected from the rail base are received by ultrasonic vibrations, echo signal parameters are measured, the analysis results of which determine the presence of defects, while an additional electro-acoustic transducer is installed and moved along with inclined transducers, emitting ultrasonic vibrations normally to the tread surface, receive and determine the time position of the bottom signal reflected from the rail base, from which the current rail height is calculated, the timing zone of inclined transducers for signals received by ultrasonic vibrations reflected from the base are determined taking into account the height of the rail, an increased control sensitivity is set in this timing zone, signals from radial cracks in the walls of the bolt hole are isolated by the appearance in one cycle of emission-reception of echo signals from the wall of the hole and from a crack with a time shift between them not exceeding the calculated value.

EFFECT: increasing reliability and confidence of ultrasonic testing of the bolted joint zone with the simultaneous possibility of adapting to different types of rails with different geometric dimensions.

1 cl, 3 dwg