Science Ahead

Train accidents kills thousands each year across the world - most of them due to internal cracking on the railroad tracks. Scientists have developed a device that uses laser pulses to check for dangerous internal cracking.



The US Federal Railroad Administration has tested it. The laser pulses from the device create ultrasonic waves that travel through rails at high speed, scanning for cracks while being pulled along a rail track at up to 112 kilometres (70 miles) per hour! It is much faster than the existing equipment.







The machine is capable of identifying microscopic fractures by monitoring the strength of ultrasonic waves passing through a rail. Thanks to the University of California, San Diego researchers and the FRA, who have tested the experimental device at a facility in Pennsylvania, US, March 2006.



Image courtesy: Emerging Technology Trends