Effective time interval for railway track geometry inspection

Ahmad Kasraei; Jabbar Ali Zakeri

doi:10.5604/01.3001.0014.1744

Authors

Ahmad Kasraei Iran University of Science and Technology, School of Railway Engineering, Tehran, Iran Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7272-0352
Jabbar Ali Zakeri Iran University of Science and Technology, School of Railway Engineering, Tehran, Iran Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4946-7192

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0014.1744

Keywords:

track geometry, inspection interval, maintenance, degradation, maintenance cost

Abstract

A proper decision-making scheme for track geometry maintenance requires a knowledge of the real condition of track geometry. Therefore, the track must be inspected by measurement cars at different time intervals. The frequency of track geometry inspection plays a crucial role in decision-making and has always been a big concern for infrastructure managers. The inspection interval should be chosen properly, it means that the small period can decrease the capacity of line and affect the operation of network and the big period can result in low quality of track and in some cases derailments and possible loss of human lives. The aim of this paper is to determine the effective inspection interval such that the total maintenance cost is minimized. In the proposed cost model, the costs of inspection, preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance and the penalty for exceeding the corrective maintenance level are considered. A case study is performed on a real dataset collected from a railway line in Iran. The standard deviation of longitudinal level is considered to measure track geometry degradation. A widely applied linear model is used to model track geometry degradation over time. Monte Carlo technique is used to simulate the track geometry behavior under various track geometry inspection intervals. In addition, a set of sensitivity analyses are carried out to assess the effect of various inspection intervals on different terms of maintenance cost. The results indicate that not only can substantial costs be saved by setting effective inspection intervals, but also the time during which the track suffers from bad conditions is dramatically reduced. The result of this study has shown the appropriate inspection interval for the studied case can result in 13.6 percent decrease in maintenance cost in comparison with the current maintenance policy. Besides, it would lead to more reliable railway track by preventing the system exceed the corrective threshold.

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