Improving railway safety and reliability during earthquakes: Rail-mounted sensors exploiting rails as seismic waveguides
Reliability Engineering and System Safety, cilt.269, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 269
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1016/j.ress.2025.112069
- Dergi Adı: Reliability Engineering and System Safety
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Compendex, INSPEC, zbMATH
- Anahtar Kelimeler: Cost-efficient seismic sensor networks, Earthquake early warning systems, False-alarm reduction, High-speed train safety, Lead time optimization, Rail transportation system safety, Seismic risk mitigation
- Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Railway systems are vulnerable to earthquake-induced deformation and derailment, requiring rapid and reliable protective action. Existing Railway Earthquake Early Warning Systems (REEWS) rely on seismometers outside the superstructure, limiting network density, warning lead times, and robustness against false or missed alarms. This study introduces and field-tests a prototype REEWS that exploits steel rails as seismic waveguides by embedding low-noise, low-cost MEMS accelerometers directly onto the track. Using the aftershock sequence of the Mw 6.1 Balıkesir–Sındırgı earthquake (Türkiye, 2025), three prototype stations recorded 39 events over one week. Results show 100 % detection probability for Mw ≥ 3.5 within 45 km, a conservative threshold well below magnitudes known to threaten railway integrity. Compared with national broadband stations, rail-mounted sensors provided up to 18 s earlier warnings (average 3 s), though small delays (≤ 5 s) occurred depending on source characteristics. High-resolution delay statistics and event-centered ΔV (speed-reduction target) coverage mapping further demonstrate that the rail-mounted system achieves median detection delays near 0 s and compact, predictable warning rings sufficient for meaningful train deceleration. Importantly, rail response amplitudes were not linearly correlated with earthquake magnitude, underscoring the need for a rail-specific methodology that reduces false alarms while enhancing reliability and safety. The approach is cost-efficient, leveraging sensors already used for wheel–track monitoring to enable dense, scalable networks at a fraction of conventional costs. These findings establish rail-mounted sensing as a viable foundation for next-generation REEWS.