Dynamic Analysis and Condition Monitoring of High-Speed Trains

A special issue of Machines (ISSN 2075-1702). This special issue belongs to the section "Vehicle Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 2536

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Mechanical Engineering Department, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
Interests: dynamic analysis; condition monitoring; fault diagnosis
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As high-speed rail networks expand globally, ensuring their safety has become a major research focus. The performance of these systems depends heavily on vehicle–track interaction dynamics and the health of key components. Advanced methodologies such as railway vehicle dynamics modeling enable precise simulation of operational behaviors under complex conditions, while fault diagnosis and prognosis techniques monitor system states and assess operational risks. Based on this analysis, maintenance engineers implement strategies to prevent accidents. Achieving this requires collecting multi-source sensor data and conducting integrated analysis. Key approaches include dynamics modeling, measurement and data collection, condition monitoring, fault diagnosis, health assessment, prognosis, and big data-driven multimodal prognostics and health management models of railway vehicles.

This Special Issue aims to compile cutting-edge research and applications in dynamics-based performance analysis, fault diagnosis, and prognosis for railway systems, encompassing both track infrastructure and critical vehicle components. We seek solutions to challenges affecting railway safety, including AI-enhanced predictive maintenance and intelligent decision-making frameworks. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Railway vehicle system dynamics modeling and simulation;
  • Data cleaning and data quality improvement;
  • Condition monitoring and health assessment;
  • Signal processing and fault feature extraction;
  • Fault detection and quantitative analysis;
  • Data-driven intelligent fault diagnosis and prognosis;
  • Vibration analysis of components in railway vehicle system;
  • Big models for general prognostics and health management of railway vehicles.

Dr. Yaoxiang Yu
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • dynamics modelling
  • intelligent fault diagnosis
  • vibration analysis
  • condition monitoring

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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18 pages, 7305 KB  
Article
SERail-SLAM: Semantic-Enhanced Railway LiDAR SLAM
by Weiwei Song, Shiqi Zheng, Xinye Dai, Xiao Wang, Yusheng Wang, Zihao Wang, Shujie Zhou, Wenlei Liu and Yidong Lou
Machines 2026, 14(1), 72; https://doi.org/10.3390/machines14010072 - 7 Jan 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1056 | Correction
Abstract
Reliable state estimation in railway environments presents significant challenges due to geometric degeneracy resulting from repetitive structural layouts and point cloud sparsity caused by high-speed motion. Conventional LiDAR-based SLAM systems frequently suffer from longitudinal drift and mapping artifacts when operating in such feature-scarce [...] Read more.
Reliable state estimation in railway environments presents significant challenges due to geometric degeneracy resulting from repetitive structural layouts and point cloud sparsity caused by high-speed motion. Conventional LiDAR-based SLAM systems frequently suffer from longitudinal drift and mapping artifacts when operating in such feature-scarce and dynamically complex scenarios. To address these limitations, this paper proposes SERail-SLAM, a robust semantic-enhanced multi-sensor fusion framework that tightly couples LiDAR odometry, inertial pre-integration, and GNSS constraints. Unlike traditional approaches that rely on rigid voxel grids or binary semantic masking, we introduce a Semantic-Enhanced Adaptive Voxel Map. By leveraging eigen-decomposition of local point distributions, this mapping strategy dynamically preserves fine-grained stable structures while compressing redundant planar surfaces, thereby enhancing spatial descriptiveness. Furthermore, to mitigate the impact of environmental noise and segmentation uncertainty, a confidence-aware filtering mechanism is developed. This method utilizes raw segmentation probabilities to adaptively weight input measurements, effectively distinguishing reliable landmarks from clutter. Finally, a category-weighted joint optimization scheme is implemented, where feature associations are constrained by semantic stability priors, ensuring globally consistent localization. Extensive experiments in real-world railway datasets demonstrate that the proposed system achieves superior accuracy and robustness compared to state-of-the-art geometric and semantic SLAM methods. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamic Analysis and Condition Monitoring of High-Speed Trains)
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20 pages, 2464 KB  
Article
Condition Monitoring Technology and Its Testing for 5G-Enabled High-Speed Railway Wireless Communication Networks: Guaranteeing the Reliability of Train–Ground Communication
by Cheng Li, Pengyu Ren, Dan Fei, Bo Ai and Lei Xiong
Machines 2025, 13(12), 1087; https://doi.org/10.3390/machines13121087 - 25 Nov 2025
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Abstract
Currently, fifth-generation (5G) communication has emerged as the most promising candidate for next-generation railway-dedicated communication systems. Condition monitoring of 5G networks is critical for ensuring the continuity and reliability of train–ground communications. In this paper, a real-time monitoring technology is proposed, which is [...] Read more.
Currently, fifth-generation (5G) communication has emerged as the most promising candidate for next-generation railway-dedicated communication systems. Condition monitoring of 5G networks is critical for ensuring the continuity and reliability of train–ground communications. In this paper, a real-time monitoring technology is proposed, which is based on generalized channel characteristics extracted from received Demodulation Reference Signals (DM-RSs). Furthermore, a corresponding monitoring system has been developed based on the Radio Frequency System on Chip (RFSoC). Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed condition monitoring system exhibits excellent performance: it can accurately measure key network metrics (including field strength, multipath components, and frequency offset) and enable real-time monitoring of the operational condition of 5G radio access networks (RAN) and on-board terminals. Future work will focus on integrating the monitoring system into on-board terminals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamic Analysis and Condition Monitoring of High-Speed Trains)
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1 pages, 125 KB  
Correction
Correction: Song et al. SERail-SLAM: Semantic-Enhanced Railway LiDAR SLAM. Machines 2026, 14, 72
by Weiwei Song, Shiqi Zheng, Xinye Dai, Xiao Wang, Yusheng Wang, Zihao Wang, Shujie Zhou, Wenlei Liu and Yidong Lou
Machines 2026, 14(5), 567; https://doi.org/10.3390/machines14050567 - 20 May 2026
Abstract
In the original publication [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dynamic Analysis and Condition Monitoring of High-Speed Trains)
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