Structural degradation of many components of a railway system leads to many rail failures on rail networks. Therefore, there is an obvious need to use more innovative approaches by applying efficient remote survey technologies, data analysis and fast decision making. Thermography is an advanced NDT technique based on the detection of infrared radiation. This thermal technique for test and diagnostic, provides a fast, 2D and real-time inspection as well as a non-destructive testing. Unlike the passive thermography, the active thermography is a technique requiring external thermal excitation of the tested object. The two modes of thermography are based on infrared waves generated from the surface of the specimen captured by thermal imager. Effective approaches by using thermography technology for successfully studying of hidden defects in materials as well as in electrical and mechanical units of railway systems is developed. The main features of passive and different actives modes of the infrared thermography technique, important for application in railway transport field are discussed in the paper. The requirements of thermography survey of railway transport, including on components of the rolling stock and the infrastructure, the safety of railway systems and transport as well as the preventive maintenance are analysed. Experimental results from infrared monitoring of some electrical and mechanical units of railway systems are presented. Thermal imaging and innovative thermal data analysis of problem areas in catenaries connection, hidden crack detection in rail and some components of the rolling stock are shown and discussed.

railway, infrared thermography, failure inspection, remote condition monitoring, innovative data analysis