System and method for monitoring braking effort

摘要

A method (e.g., for monitoring a braking system of a vehicle system) includes monitoring fluid pressures of a braking system and modeled braking efforts of the braking system in a vehicle system traveling along a route, identifying one or more time periods at least one of before a brake event of the braking system or after the brake event, calculating residual forces exerted on the vehicle system during the one or more time periods, and determining at least one of an estimated braking effort of the braking system or an estimated propagation rate at which the estimated braking effort is applied by the braking system using the residual forces that are calculated.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
monitoring fluid pressures of a braking system with one or more pressure sensors and modeled braking efforts of the braking system in a vehicle system traveling along a route, the modeled braking efforts representing one or more calculated values of a braking force expected to be provided by the braking system based on one or more measured parameters of the vehicle system, wherein the modeled braking efforts may be different from a braking force that is generated by the braking system; identifying, with one or more processors, one or more time periods before a brake event of the braking system and one or more time periods after the brake event; calculating, with the one or more processors, residual forces exerted on the vehicle system during at least one of the one or more time periods before the brake event or the one or more time periods after the brake event, the residual forces including one or more forces exerted on the vehicle system other than the braking force generated by the braking system; determining, with the one or more processors, at least one of an estimated braking effort of the braking system or an estimated propagation rate at which the estimated braking effort changes using the residual forces that are calculated; and responsive to determining the at least one of the estimated braking effort or the estimated propagation rate, one or more of:
changing a time at which a braking notification is provided to an operator of the vehicle system to instruct the operator to engage the braking system,revising a trip plan of the vehicle system using the at least one of the estimated braking effort or the estimated propagation rate, wherein the trip plan designates operational settings of the vehicle system as a function of one or more of time or distance along the route,notifying the operator of the vehicle system that the at least one of the estimated braking effort or the estimated propagation rate differs from at least one of the braking force that is expected to be provided by the braking system or a propagation rate that is expected to be provided by the braking system, ornotifying an off-board location that the at least one of the estimated braking effort or the estimated propagation rate differs from the at least one of the braking force that is expected to be provided by the braking system or the propagation rate that is expected to be provided by the braking system.