Rail - real time in-situ testing

Medulla* was contracted by Downer EDI to develop a high-speed stress and strain logging system to assist in the commissioning of the Waratah train carriages for Sydney Rail.

The carriages needed to undergo a series of live trials to ensure the stresses, strains and deformations experienced were all within design limits.

To accomplish this Downer EDI engineers placed 60 strain gauges throughout the carriage. Our task was to develop the logging system that simultaneously sampled all transducers and streamed it to file. We also developed a tool that allowed the engineers to perform fast waterfall analysis of large data sets.

The system was delivered on time and on budget. Data collected and processed assisted Downer EDI in achieving their test and commissioning goals

“As part of the Test and Commissioning process for Sydney’s new Waratah trains, Downer Rail engaged Kurt to develop LabVIEW software to efficiently acquire, store and post-process large volumes of dynamic strain gauge data from 60 channels using the compact RIO hardware. Kurt's extensive experience in software engineering, object-oriented programming and problem solving skills resulted in the delivery of a sound and well designed software application. His professionalism, initiative, ability to meet project requirements, offer improvements and provide valuable training to staff has left us with great confidence in his abilities and in the end product.”

Andrew Wasiowych

Senior Design Engineer – Rolling Stock Structures

Downer Rail

*project conducted by Medulla co-founder Kurt Friday while trading as Sciware Pty Ltd. All IP owned by Medulla Pty Ltd.