Railway Line Occupancy Control Based on Distance Determination Sound Method

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 22; no. 13; p. 5003
• Main Authors: Burdzik, Rafał, Celiński, Ireneusz, Kłaczyński, Maciej
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 02.07.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Acoustic waves; Acoustics; Algorithms; Big Data; detection; Information sources; Internet of Things; Methods; Noise; Occupancy; Pressure measurement; Propagation; rail vehicle; Roads & highways; Scientific papers; Sensors; sound based distance determination; sound level; Sound pressure; Sound waves; Traffic congestion; Traffic control; Traffic flow; Vibration
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s22135003

The purpose of this research paper is to present the application of the developed sound method as a supporting tool to deal with railway traffic flow control. It is found that controlling railway line occupancy is the main issue associated with railway traffic flow. For this purpose, the line occupancy control based on a sound method has been developed. The concept of using sound waves as a source of information about approaching people, animals, vehicles, etc., has been known for centuries, and is due to the natural properties of the sense of hearing. There are many engineering attempts on the use of this phenomenon, which are mostly based on applications of distributed fiber-optic sensing technology. This paper presents the results of the sound pressure measurement in the immediate proximity of the rail to analyze and evaluate the use of the acoustic wave as an information carrier on approaching rail vehicles. The purpose of this research is to discuss the sound method introduced here, and apply it in different circumstances.