Thermal Analysis Highlights High Electrical Load In Railway Rolling Stock
As part of a comprehensive reliability review of a fleet of underground rolling stock, PCMS undertook a full thermographic survey of the electrical equipment within the carriages, using a Flir T250 thermal camera.
The survey indicated that, of the 26 carriages, 22 required no further action. However, in 4 cases, further investigation was recommended as a result of the discovery of hot connectors or unusually high loadings.
Faults such as these could ultimately lead to in-service failure of the carriages concerned, resulting in performance penalties from London Underground, customer dissatisfaction and general chaos on the network.
Above are three images taken from a diesel locomotive using a thermal camera