Deterioration Analysis of Electrical Units in Diesel Electric Locomotive for Effective Maintenance

초록

In order to assure the overall safety of locomotives, which were used for over 25 years, it is needed to analyze the current deterioration and reliability status for the components of locomotive and/or the whole systems. Moreover, according to the Korean Railway Safety Law, in order to validate the extension possibility for legal lifetime of 25 years in diesel electric locomotives, the current condition assessment, safety assessment, remaining lifetime evaluation, etc. need to be performed. Based on the evaluation results, the legal lifetime of diesel electric locomotives could be extended up to 15 years. In this investigation, the electrical units of diesel electric locomotives, which were used for over 25 years, were characterized for deterioration evaluation using infrared thermography technique. The infrared (IR) thermography is a powerful non-destructive evaluation technique for the characterization of thermal phenomenon in engineering components and/or systems including engineering materials. The IR camera provides the measurement of temperature as well as the images of temperature contour on the surface of objects."