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A stochastic model for railway track asset management

Andrews, John; Prescott, Darren; De Rozi�res, Florian

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Authors

JOHN ANDREWS john.andrews@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Infrastructure Asset Management

Florian De Rozi�res



Abstract

The determination of the strategy to ensure that the geometry for railway track is kept within acceptable limits, in a cost effective manner, is a complex process. It requires the simultaneous consideration of the activities which govern inspection, maintenance and renewal. In addition to this the geometry degradation process is dependent upon the maintenance history. The condition where the track geometry is shown to have deteriorated to a level where intervention is required can be improved using a tamping machine. Tamping is carried out by a special train which measures the geometry of the rails, predicts the correction needed, lifts the rails to the required position, inserts tines into the ballast either side of the sleepers and packs the ballast such that the correct rail position is attained. Whilst improving the geometry this process has the disadvantage that it also breaks the ballast which accelerates the track geometry degradation and reduces the time between interventions.

This paper describes a modelling process to predict the state of the track geometry given any specified asset management strategy. It is based on the Petri net method and in addition to predicting the track condition over time it can also compute the expected whole life costs. By varying the parameters which govern the inspection, maintenance and renewal of the ballast as the most cost effective means to achieve the required level of performance can be predicted.

Citation

Andrews, J., Prescott, D., & De Rozières, F. (2014). A stochastic model for railway track asset management. Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 130, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2014.04.021

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 27, 2014
Online Publication Date May 14, 2014
Publication Date Oct 1, 2014
Deposit Date Jul 22, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Reliability Engineering and System Safety
Electronic ISSN 0951-8320
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 130
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2014.04.021
Keywords Railway track ballast; Degradation models; Maintenance models; Asset management; Petri nets
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/994132
Publisher URL http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0951832014000891

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