Determining Smart Phone Sensing and K-Means Clustering for Accurate and Timely Railway Track Joint Fault Diagnosis

The railway track joint is an important component that connects two sections of the rail and ensures a smooth and safe operation of trains. However, the joint is also a critical point of failure that can lead to train derailments and accidents. Therefore, accurate and timely detection of joint faults is crucial for ensuring the safety and reliability of railway transportation. In this paper, we propose a novel approach for railway track joint fault diagnosis using smart phone sensing and k-means clustering. Our approach utilizes the accelerometer sensor of a smart phone to measure the vibrations and movements of a specifically developed railway shoe stick that is employed on an actual railway track for the condition monitoring of the railway tracks. More than 60000 data values are collected and are then processed and analysed using k-means clustering, a popular unsupervised machine learning technique that groups similar data points together. The K means clustering in this study forms 3 clusters as a result. The 3 clusters after being validated on the track by virtue of visual inspection are determined to be acceleration values of the healthy track, track with higher joint gap than the standardized value and super-elevated railway track joint fault(s), respectively. In addition to its high accuracy and efficiency, our approach has several advantages over traditional methods, such as low cost, easy deployment, and high scalability. Moreover, the smart phone sensing technology can be easily integrated with existing train monitoring systems, making it a useful tool for real-time joint fault diagnosis and maintenance. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential of smart phone sensing and k-means clustering for railway track joint fault diagnosis and highlights the need for further research in this field.