The short-wavelength track type irregularity known as «track corrugation» is one the wear mechanism that seriously affects railway operation safety, which involves the preventive replacement of rails and incurring costs of up to 30% of railway structure maintenance. In this regard, enabling early and accurate assessment of this phenomenon facilitates appropriate and efficient maintenance decision-making, maximizing operational safety. To this end, a measurement system based on inertial sensors installed on onboard vehicles is designed and numerical models that quantify such wear defects based on the measured accelerations of the system are developed. The numerical algorithm accounts for the elastic deformations and the dynamic response at medium frequencies of the system (up to 2 kHz), a fundamental aspect in achieving the goal due to the low characteristic wavelength of the corrugation.
