Hot box detectors didn’t stop the East Palestine derailment
A failing, flaming wheel bearing doomed the rail car that derailed and created a catastrophe in East Palestine earlier this month, but researchers have offered a solution to the faulty detectors that experts say could have averted the disaster unfolding in the small Ohio town.
本月早些时候，一个有问题的、过热的车轮轴承导致轨道车脱轨，并在东巴勒斯坦造成了一场灾难。但研究人员已经为故障探测器提供了一种解决方案，专家表示这可能会避免俄亥俄州小镇发生的灾难。
①derail：
英 /dɪˈreɪl 美 /dɪˈreɪl
(使)出轨;(使)离开正常进程
②avert：
英 /əˈvɜːt 美 /əˈvɜːrt
避开;防止，避免(危险、坏事)
These wayside hot box detectors, stationed on rail tracks every 20 miles or so, use infrared sensors to record the temperatures of railroad bearings as trains pass by. If they sense an overheated bearing, the detectors trigger an alarm, which notifies the train crew they should stop and inspect the rail car for a potential failure.
每间隔20英里就会在轨道旁安装一个轨道热箱探测器，当列车经过时会使用红外传感器记录轨道轴承的温度。如果它们检测到轴承过热，探测器会触发警报，通知列车员他们应该停下来检查轨道车是否存在潜在故障。
infrared：
英 /ˌɪnfrəˈred 美 /ˌɪnfrəˈred
红外线的;使用红外线的
So why did these detectors miss a bearing failure before the catastrophe?
那么为什么这些探测器在灾难发生之前没有报告轴承故障呢？
An investigation into hot box detectors published in 2019 and funded by the Department of Transportation found that one “major shortcoming” of these detectors is that they can’t distinguish between healthy and defective bearings, and temperature alone is not a good indicator of bearing health.
2019年发表的一项由交通部资助的对热盒探测器的调查发现，这些探测器的一个“主要缺点”是它们无法区分轴承是健康和有缺陷，温度本身并不是一个好的判断轴承是否健康的指标。
“Temperature is reactive in nature, meaning by the time you’re sensing a high temperature in a bearing, it’s too late, the bearing is already in its final stages of failure,” Constantine Tarawneh, director of the University Transportation Center for Railways Safety (UTCRS) and lead investigator of the study, told CNN.
“温度在本质上是反应性的，这意味着当你感觉到轴承中的高温时，已经为时已晚，轴承已经处于有问题的最后阶段了。”铁路安全大*运学**输中心、该研究的首席研究员Constantine Tarawneh向CNN透露。
As part of the investigation, the UTCRS researchers developed a new system to better detect a bearing issue long before a catastrophic failure. The key: measuring the bearing’s vibration in addition to its temperature and load.
作为调查的一部分，UTCRS研究人员开发了一种新系统，可以在灾难性故障发生之前更好地检测轴承问题。关键点：除了测量轴承的温度和负载外，还要测量轴承的振动。
The vibration of a failing bearing, Tarawneh says, often begins intensifying thousands of miles before a catastrophic failure. So his team created sensors that can be placed on board each rail car, near the bearing, to continuously monitor its vibration throughout its travels.
Tarawneh说，轴承故障的振动通常在灾难性故障前几千英里就开始加剧。因此他的团队创建了传感器，可以放置在每辆轨道车上的轴承附近，以持续监测其整个行程中的振动。
“If you put an accelerometer on a bearing and you’re monitoring the vibration levels, the minute a defect happens in the bearing, the accelerometer will sense an increase in vibration, and that could be, in many cases, up to 100,000 miles before the bearing actually fails,” he said.
他说:“如果你在轴承上安装一个加速度计，并监测振动水平，一旦轴承出现缺陷，加速度计就会感应到振动的增加。在许多情况下，在轴承实际失效之前，加速度计可能会达到10万英里。”
Tarawneh, who argues the technology should be federally mandated, says had it been on board Norfolk Southern’s line it would have prevented the derailment in East Palestine.
Tarawneh认为这项技术应该得到联邦政府的授权，他说如果这项技术在Norfolk南方铁路线上，就可以防止东巴勒斯坦发生的脱轨事件。
mandate：
英 /ˈmændeɪt 美 /ˈmændeɪt
(政府或组织等经选举而获得的)授权;(政府的)任期;委托书
“It would have detected the problem months before this happened,” he said. “There wouldn’t have been a derailment.”
他说：“在这起事故发生前几个月就可以发现问题，也就不会发生脱轨了。”
翻译：老戴
编辑：老张
全网搜索：老戴讲英语
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