1. Home
  2. TRID
  3. View Record
https://trb-annual-meeting.nationalacademies.org/registration

DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM DESIGN MANUAL

The data acquisition system described in this manual was designed to collect vibration and load data associated with a railway track as a train passes over the track section. The system converts the data to digital form and stores it in a form suitable for analysis on a high speed digital computer. The data acquisition system design embodies features which will permit the application of the system to other data acquisition problems. These features are described in the appropriate sections of this manual. The data acquisition system is a sampled data system. It samples the data at the rate of 30,000 samples per second. The sampling rate is established, and controlled, by the tape storage unit, and cannot be adjusted. The system uses a single 8 bit Analogue to Digital Converter, with a multiplexed input which permits sampling of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32 channels of data. The data is stored in sequential fashion on magnetic tape at a density of 800 bits per inch, in an IBM compatible form. To simplify analysis, the data is stored on the magnetic tape in blocks. The data block size may be selected to contain 4000, 4096, 8000, 8192, 16000, 16384, or 32000 data words. In addition, each data block carries a record number and a block number as the first two words of the block. The record number is preset by control switches, with the block number automatically incrementing from 0 as data blocks are stored. In addition to the magnetic tape data record, the system provides a photographic record of the test track, with one 35 mm photograph exposed automatically during each data block (no photographs are provided in the 4000 and 4096 data block sizes). A display unit provides a visual display of the record and block numbers, thereby keying the photographic record to the magnetic tape record.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • Research funded by the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railways, and by the Canadian Transportation Development Agency.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Canadian Institute of Guided Ground Transport

    Queen's University
    Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6,   Canada 
  • Authors:
    • CORNEIL, E R
  • Publication Date: 1976-3

Media Info

  • Features: Appendices; Figures; Tables;
  • Pagination: 96 p.

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00142512
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: Canadian Institute of Guided Ground Transport
  • Report/Paper Numbers: CIGGT 76-1 Final Rpt.
  • Files: TRIS
  • Created Date: Dec 1 1976 12:00AM