Background:
Enhancement of rail and wheel life
is extremely important to rail industries. Wheel-rail contact;
wheel and rail wear, rolling contact fatigue, lubrication, curve
radius, axle load, number of axles passed through rail segment,
Million Gross Tonnes (MGT), traffic intensity, speed, rail
material, track geometry, rail dynamics, inspections and wear
limits play vital role in rail wheel degradation and leads to
increased operational risks. Rail defects, rail breaks and
derailments costs huge amount due to cancelled / delayed traffic,
emergency maintenance, loss of assets, loss of revenues and
liability compensations due to down times. It is important to study
the interaction of factors behind these problems, monitor those
factors and find out technological solutions to reduce or eliminate
those problems for enhancing rail and wheel life and reducing
operational risks. Reduced rail and wheel life due to wear; rolling
contact fatigue, lubrication problems and down time in unplanned
repair and replacements including rail defects, rail breaks and
derailments affect the life of rails and wheels and increases cost
of maintaining rail operation. There is an urgent need for:
- Identification, measurement, recording and analysis of these
variables
- Lab and field tests for optimal decisions on lubrication, axle
load, Million Gross Tonnes (MGT), speed, rail material,
inspections, rail and wheel grinding, wear limits and rail
replacements for various segments with different curve radius and
traffic intensity.
- Develop decision support system to reduce down times, cost of
rail and wheel replacements and operating risks.
Objective:
The proposed
research aims to develop a decision model based on predicted
operational risks, with a view to establish economic strategies for
lubrication and grinding, inspection and rail replacements.
Project scope:
This project is expected to develop
the integrated knowledge required to monitor rail, wheel
degradation for condition based risk assessment leading to optimal
grinding, lubrication and replacement decisions for enhancing rail
and wheel life at minimum operational risks. This will use both
field and lab experiments and analyse data related to rail and
wheel signature.
Integrated research in wear
(lubrication), Rolling Contact Fatigue (Rail grinding), Inspection
(NDT) and wear Limit (rail, wheel replacements) will be carried out
for rail and wheel life enhancement and reduction of operational
risks. A decision support system will be developed for risk
assessment, monitoring and control.
Benefits:
Outcome of this research will be
useful for informed strategic decisions in inspection, maintenance,
rail grinding, lubrication, speed limit, axle load, MGT(Million
Gross Tonne), wear limit and rail replacements. Expected savings to
Australian rail industries would be AUD 5 Million per year
Expected outcomes:
- Integrated Wear-Fatigue-Lubrication Model
- Data on lubrication effectiveness
- Data for calibration of integrated model
- Rail lubrication guideline
- Economic model for rail risk analysis
- Decision Support System for reducing down times, cost of rail
and wheel replacements and operating risks.
Project timeframe:
January 2008 – Dec 2009
Project Chair:
John Powell, Queensland Rail
Project Leader:
Dr. Gopinath Chattopadhyay, Associated Professor, Central
Queensland University
Tel: (07) 4970 7602
Email: g.chattopadhyay@cqu.edu.au
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