Experimental and Numerical Determination of the Defects in Joints Welded by Aluminothermy Process

Currently the rail transport is marked by a clear predominance of passenger traffic, due to its safety and its comfort. However, with new high-speed trains' technologies and significant movement frequencies, the rails are particularly more solicited. Therefore, the quality of the rail is an important element of the comfort felt by passengers and especially the safety of traffic. This quality is degraded by the presence of defects in the welding of the rails. Depending on the criticality of the defects, damaging processes can disable the rail. The control of these defects seems to be necessary for a better prevention of any breakdown risk. This is what motivated our research, through which we had developed a method to control the angles' selection of ultrasonic waves' propagation, for a better visualization of internal rail defects with their measurements/sizes and locations. Thanks to our method, we were able to improve the control and afterward the maintenance; knowing that the former method is limited only to the anomaly detection.