Acceleration data on in-service tramway vehicles provides helpful information related to the track condition. It represents advantages in terms of measurement frequency, the elimination of the requirement for additional track occupancy for measurements, and safety of operations on the track. However, the collected acceleration data must be further processed to provide more precise information on rail surface irregularities and defects. Detecting and evaluating irregularities from bogie frame acceleration requires extensive signal processing along with determining track, vehicle, and operational parameters. For more precise results and better approach, the vibro-acoustic characteristics of the track, vehicle, and wheels should be investigated in more detail in order to create transfer functions, along with evaluating the condition of the rail and wheel roughness. The aim of this paper is to investigate the current state of the art, as well as to present some preliminary measurements and analyses connected to this topic.

rail irregularities; bogie frame acceleration; transfer functions; vibro-acoustic parameters; tramway vehicle