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User interface under development for Rail Corrugation Predictor
System.
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Rail corrugation occurs on nearly every railway system in the world
and its removal by grinding, costs the railway industry in the
order of 5-20 per cent of maintenance costs per annum. The key aims
of this project are to determine the fundamental mechanism
associated with the occurrence of wear-type rail corrugation and
develop a rail corrugation estimator system that may be used to
monitor and predict growth of rail corrugation. The estimator
system will be bbased upon critical parameters such as traffic,
tonnage, speed and track radius. This system may be used to
optimise maintenance scheduling and minimise the occurrence of rail
corrugation on existing and new track. The research in this project
is also expected to provide new insight required for the
suppression of rail corrugation.
The project has been undertaken with the full support and
involvement of Rail CRC participants, including QR, RailCorp and
ARTC, with the industry looking forward to utilising the Rail
Corrugation Prediction model when it is finalised and taking
advantage of the cost savings and benefits. The project was
evaluated by STEM Partnerships in 2005 and was estimated to have
the potential to deliver a risk-free-value of $13.6 million to the
rail industry over 15 years. Taking into account the risks involved
in delivering the technology, the expected value was $7.2 million.
Progress to date:
- Development of a rail corrugation database system in electronic and
hard copy form, with over 300 references.
- Development of integrated, analytical and numerical models for wear
type rail corrugation completed.
- Determination of fundamental mechanism and critical parameters
associated with the occurrence of rolling contact instability
completed.
- Valuable monitoring and field testing on more than 20 sites around
Australia undertaken to validate modelling results.
- Commissioning of rail corrugation test rig completed and ongoing
testing and calibration of the rig is underway.
- Development of Version 1 of the rail corrugation
estimator/predictor system completed. Further enhancements
are in progress.
Future Outcomes:
- Final development of rail corrugation prediction/estimator system
to monitor and/or predict the first appearance and growth of rail
corrugation based upon critical parameters such as traffic,
tonnage, speed and track radius – to be commercialised and
utilised within the Australian rail industry through the licensing
of the software product to final users.
- Based on the insight gained from this research, a new project has
recently commenced that focuses on the development of a novel
corrugation control prototype, which aims to mitigate the growth of
corrugations at troublesome sites.
Project Leader: Dr Paul Meehan (University of Queensland)
Project Manager: Mr John Powell (Queensland Rail)
