Session 11 – Railway Maintenance

The problems of railway maintenance represent a very strategic topic, in the perspective of a more and more massive use of trains for people traveling along international high speed and high capacity railway corridors. But the problems of railway maintenance regard also the local connections.  These topics were discussed during the 11^th session of the TIS.

Marinella Giunta and Filippo Giammaria Praticò – Design and maintenance of high speed rail tracks: a comparison between ballasted and ballast-less solutions based on life cycle cost analysis / This work has been carried out a life cycle cost assessment of the two competing track solutions, ballasted and ballast-less, considering short and long perspective. Cost analysis considers present value of agency, environmental, and user costs. The trend of agency, user, and externality costs of the alternatives over the entire life cycle of the infrastructure allows recognizing the most sustainable solution. Results show that solutions that are more affordable in the short time can yield maintenance and renewal processes which are unfavourable or less sustainable in the long term. Furthermore, in the long term, the difference between the (total) present value of the two solutions becomes too small to yield sound conclusions in favour of the bal-last-less solution with respect to the ballasted one.

Mariano Gallo, Fulvio Simonelli and Giuseppina De Luca – The potentiality of energy-efficient driving profiles on railway consumptions: a parametric approach / The problem to reduce railway consumptions involves several aspects both strictly technological and organizational. In this paper we propose a parametric approach for evaluating the effects of the optimisation of driving profiles on railway consumptions. To this aim, a kinematic optimisation model is formulated and solved for different case studies, considering also the energy recovered in the braking phase. The numerical results were used to build tables and abacuses that can be used to provide a preliminary evaluation of effectiveness of energy saving strategies for different section and train characteristics. The approach was tested on the regional railway services of Campania Region. Initial results show that it is possible to save until to 20% of the total energy with a correct optimisation of speed profiles and until 35% by coupling the optimisation of speed with braking energy recovery system.

Stipe Galić, Tatjana Stanivuk and Ana Marušić – Development, analysis and prediction efficiency of bulk carriers in the world market / Today, a significant part of world trade is transported by sea, of which a large part refers to bulk cargo. Transportation of bulk cargo by sea can be defined as transport of homogeneous cargo with vessel to an irregular schedule of sailing. In this study are presented statistical analysis of bulk carrier vessels and further forecast of supply and demand of bulk cargo by type. Also, it shows main key factors in which some encourages and some interfere the growth of bulk cargo industry. One such factor is the fulfillment of the new prescribed rigorous terms of reduced discharge of greenhouse gases from these types of vessels, because the shipping industry is currently the only industrial sector which is already covered by a legally binding global agreement on the reduction of CO2 emissions through technical and operational measures adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Luca Bianchini Ciampoli, Fabio Tosti, Alessandro Calvi, Morteza Amir Alani and Andrea Benedetto –

efficient practices in railway ballast maintenance and quality assessment using gpr / The need for effective and efficient railway maintenance is always more demanded all over the world as the main consequence of aging and degradation of infrastructures. Thereby, a detailed and up-to-date knowledge of the quality of the railway substructure is mandatory for scheduling proper maintenance, with the final goal of optimizing the productivity while keeping the safety at the highest standard. This works aims at reviewing a set of maintenance methodologies, spanning from the traditional and most employed ones, up to the most innovative approaches available in the market, with a special focus on the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) non-destructive testing (NDT) technique.

Salvatore Cafiso, Brunella Capace, Carmelo D’Agostino, Emanuele Delfino and Alessandro Di Graziano –  Monitoring of railway track with light high efficiency systems  / Rail Track performance is highly dependent upon the magnitude and variation of differential track geometry. Consequently, there is an increasing interest in obtaining a consistent measure of trackbed stiffness and track geometry in the physical and time restrictions applicable on live track for assessing potential maintenance re-quirement and subsequent design of remedial measures. Furthermore, a lack of a systematic monitoring brings to the impossibility to produce an effective long term track management system. In this framework, in the case of local railway track with reduced gauge, the use of the traditional high speed track monitoring systems is not feasible. This research details a site investigation comprising trial ground penetrating radar (GPR), light falling weight (LWD) and laser measurement system (LCMS) testing.

Jorge Luis Rodriguez Navarro, Renato Macciotta Pulisci, Michael Hendry, Tom Edwards and Trevor Evans – Slope hazards and risk engineering in the canadian railway network through the cordillera / The presence of the Cordillera in Western Canada exposes railway corridors to numerous slope hazards with the potential to endanger railway personnel, operations, equipment and infrastructure. Railways in Canada have a long history of operation delays and infrastructure damage caused by slope instabilities. In this regard, slopes are a substantial aspect of the risk engineering approaches adopted by the railways crossing the Cordillera. This work shows some engineering approaches applied to slope hazards along some sections in the Canadian Cordillera. This is illustrated with landslide case studies with the potential to negatively affect railway operations. Is also highlighted the importance of proactive investigation to increase the knowledge about the particular hazard with the aims of continuously enhancing the risk management strategies.

CHAIRMAN: Agostino Cappelli