Perpustakaan Digital ITB

In railway operations, wheel-rail contact force plays a critical role in determining the performance and safety of trains. It serves as a key parameter for evaluating various aspects such as safety, stability, and smooth running of the railway system. In Indonesia, there are currently no equipment available to obtain wheel-rail contact force readings. However, the Bandung Institute of Technology has a 1:5 scaled roller rig that does not have instrumentation at the time of writing this undergraduate thesis. This undergraduate thesis aims to implement proper instrumentation on the roller rig. This undergraduate thesis focuses on designing and prototyping a data acquisition system that can measure vertical wheel-rail contact force in the roller rig. A new roller design will be manufactured, which can mount sensors. The data acquisition components will then be assembled to enable reading and displaying sensor readings using LabVIEW. Then, static calibration will be done using sample and test loads to convert the sensor readings into vertical wheel-rail contact force. The prototype system was successfully implemented on the 1:5 roller rig and displayed vertical wheel-rail contact force. Calibration showed errors from actual loads mostly below 7%, with a maximum of 10.1%. The system also exhibited hysteresis of up to 6.4% of the force span. While functional, improvements in load application, strain gauge bonding, and electrical stability are needed to reduce these errors.