Determining the response of piezoelectric sensors working as sensors of freight wagon construction

The presented work is a part of project carried out by the consortium that consists of the scientific entity—the Institute of Engineering Processes Automation and Integrated Manufacturing Systems from the Silesian University of Technology and enterprises—DB Schenker Rail Poland. The aim of this research project is to modernize the analysed wagon during its renovation using new materials (Baier A et al, Experimental synthesis and analysis of geometric and structural properties of chosen elements of railway wagons, 2012, [1]; Płaczek M et al, Computer-aided strength analysis of the modernized freight wagon, 2015 [11]; Wróbel A et al, Int J Mater Prod Technol, 50/3–4 (2015) 259–275 [14]). The main objective of project is modernize of the wagon during its renovation using new innovative composites in order to protect sheathing of the wagon against corrosion. This paper contains a report on the research of piezoelectric sensor system. The assumption of the study was to prove that it is possible to continuously monitoring the state of the shell of a freight wagon during driving. All project was divided into several stages: the execution of composite panels as plating freight wagon, installation of piezoelectric sensors in the panels and in the supporting structure of the wagon, design telemetric system which allows the location of the car and collects information from the sensors and the analysis of the received data.