The critical infrastructure protection is the important area of Homeland Security. The Rail Tank Car Leakage Detection System (RLEAKS) is the research and development project to improve the safety of the nation's railways. The project is aimed to develop a system that can detect and locate pinhole leaks in rail car containment vessels and provide alerts to railroad operators and security personnel. Pressurized rail tank cars transport and distribute large volumes of volatile liquids and gases throughout the nation each day, much of which is hazardous and/or flammable.

RLEAKS is a low-cost, distributed wireless network of acoustic sensors that incorporates intelligent location decision-making to monitor leaks, while minimizing false alarms and remaining non-intrusive to railroad operation.

The main topics to be addressed in the RLEAKS project include:

• Acoustic sensor adequacy with respect to environment;
• Sensitivity;
• Precision;
• Line-of-sight limitations;
• Power, weight, and volume;
• High-frequency sampling hardware and software;
• Algorithms for leak spectral analyses and isolation, first order leak detection, false alarm prevention, and leak localization;
• Integrated wireless network capability;
• Ground control station for data fusion, visualization and storage, as well as wireless network management.

A complete system demonstration to exhibit the capabilities and application of the sensor network will be conducted at the project’s conclusion.

This project is in collaboration with the Institute for Scientific Research, Inc. (ISR).

• Read RLEAKS press-release.