9:15 AM - 9:30 AM
[STT35-02] Concept of fail-safe seismograph with improved reliability
Keywords:EEW, Seismograph, Fail safe, Fault tolerance , High Speed Train
The Earthquake Early Warning System for Shinkansen developed by the Railway Technical Research Institute in 1992 has observed various earthquakes. This system plays a certain role in ensuring the safety of the Shinkansen. In particular, the electric seismographs installed along the railway lines have the function of making train control decisions based on the earthquake information (epicenter, magnitude, seismic intensity scale, etc.) transmitted from other seismographs.
Currently, this system is using EEW of JMA and NIED’s ocean bottom seismographs in order to improve safety. Improving the reliability of seismographs managed by railway companies is an important issue in order to further enhance the robustness of this system. When the reliability improvement measures were considered to prevent malfunctions and extend the operating time, we decided that the adoption of fail-safe structure for seismograph.
The fail-safe seismograph has the same function as the train control judgment function by detecting P-wave and S-wave of the current seismograph. Since the calculated results are collated at the sampling interval, the information output from the fail-safe seismograph can be said to be highly reliable information. It can be said that not only the reliability of the hardware itself is improved, but also the output information is highly reliable. Currently, the Shinkansen uses a method of stopping trains by power supply cutting at substations. In the future, by connecting to railway signals and wireless train control systems, we believe that it will be possible to support a wider range of train control methods.
In the future, we will consider the details of the specifications and verify that fail-safe work as designed. After that, we plan to conduct test observations at the railway site to confirm whether reliability that exceeds the performance of the current seismograph can be ensured. Furthermore, as the number of parts increases, countermeasures against the cost increase of the seismograph are also an important issue. We plan to work with manufacturers and experts to find out in detail how to achieve high reliability at low cost.
Currently, this system is using EEW of JMA and NIED’s ocean bottom seismographs in order to improve safety. Improving the reliability of seismographs managed by railway companies is an important issue in order to further enhance the robustness of this system. When the reliability improvement measures were considered to prevent malfunctions and extend the operating time, we decided that the adoption of fail-safe structure for seismograph.
The fail-safe seismograph has the same function as the train control judgment function by detecting P-wave and S-wave of the current seismograph. Since the calculated results are collated at the sampling interval, the information output from the fail-safe seismograph can be said to be highly reliable information. It can be said that not only the reliability of the hardware itself is improved, but also the output information is highly reliable. Currently, the Shinkansen uses a method of stopping trains by power supply cutting at substations. In the future, by connecting to railway signals and wireless train control systems, we believe that it will be possible to support a wider range of train control methods.
In the future, we will consider the details of the specifications and verify that fail-safe work as designed. After that, we plan to conduct test observations at the railway site to confirm whether reliability that exceeds the performance of the current seismograph can be ensured. Furthermore, as the number of parts increases, countermeasures against the cost increase of the seismograph are also an important issue. We plan to work with manufacturers and experts to find out in detail how to achieve high reliability at low cost.