US 12,339,182 B2
Apparatus for monitoring mechanical joints of railway rails
Massimo Platini, Rome (IT); Elisa Duca, Como (IT); Marco Renzetti, Rome (IT); and Marco Cavaciuti, San Donato Milanese (IT)
Assigned to G.C.F. GENERALE COSTRUZIONI FERROVIARIE S.P.A., Rome (IT)
Appl. No. 17/766,863
Filed by G.C.F. GENERALE COSTRUZIONI FERROVIARIE S.P.A., Rome (IT)
PCT Filed Oct. 12, 2020, PCT No. PCT/IB2020/059574
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Apr. 6, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/070161, PCT Pub. Date Apr. 15, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 102019000018578 (IT), filed on Oct. 11, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2024/0085255 A1, Mar. 14, 2024
Int. Cl. G01L 1/24 (2006.01); B61K 9/08 (2006.01)
CPC G01L 1/246 (2013.01) [B61K 9/08 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A monitoring apparatus for mechanical joints of railway rails, comprising:
a tubular shaped body;
two terminations disposed on ends of said tubular shaped body; and
an optical fiber strain gauge, disposed inside the tubular shaped body between said two terminations, each termination being adapted to be stabilized to and integral with an end of a railway rail,
wherein said strain gauge comprises an optical fiber thread that is blocked and tensioned between the two terminations slidingly placed facing each other so that a relative movement of the two terminations is matched by a variation of a length of the optical fiber thread of the strain gauge, and
wherein the variation of the length and a variation of mechanical tension of the strain gauge being matched by a variation of a wavelength of an optical signal passing through the strain gauge.