Review of railway track applications of Barkhausen noise and other magnetic testing methods

The main aim of this report is to review the recent progress in the utilisation of Barkhausen noise and other magnetic testing methods for railway inspection and to provide a basis for follow-on research. This paper reviews the technologies currently employed along with examples of recent field applications. The three main research areas that this review focuses upon are the residual stress determination from rail tracks, the stress-free temperature (neutral temperature) determination with magnetic Barkhausen noise measurements and the study of the corrugation of railroads with Barkhausen noise. The Barkhausen noise features utilised in these studies are also reported. Finally, some preliminary measurements carried out on Finnish rail tracks with commercial Barkhausen noise equipment are presented.