Search results for "railway track"
showing 7 items of 7 documents
Digital image analysis technique for measuring railway track defects and ballast gradation
2018
Abstract In order to guarantee safety and driving comfort and to maintain an efficient railway infrastructure, the first step is to carefully monitor the track geometry and wear level of the materials constituting the superstructure. To that end diagnostic trains are widely used on main lines, in that they can detect several geometric track parameters and rail wear, but under no circumstances they can yet detect ballast gradation. Due to the practical implications for the planning of maintenance operations on the railway network, this article presents a “DIP” digital image processing technique for measuring the transverse profile and corrugations of the rails as well as ballast gradation. T…
A markovian model as a tool for optimization of maintenance planning on the railway lines
2008
This paper is designed to develop a procedure which defines a planning criterion for railway superstructure maintenance by means of Markov decision processes. This methodology allows to formulate a specific policy π which carries out the best configuration of budget allocation (min. Ф), and at the same time to guarantee the highest efficiency level in the railway superstructure. Thanks to the dynamic programming technique applied to decision processes, the report has examined the possibility of establishing the best management policy in order to maintain adequate safety levels of implementation and quality speed levels, in the presence of budget constraints, thus optimizing the available re…
A grid of material and immaterial laboratories for supporting the sustainability of transportation: the RESET project in Sicily
2015
Transportation is a crucial sector, to be suitably approached in order of getting human activities in more environmentally sustainable paths. In fact, in developing, as well in less developing, countries people and freights mobility are responsible of important amount of pollutant emissions and are cause of significant levels of energy consumptions. In this paper, a Sicilian regional project is presented, aiming at establishing an interconnected grid of material and immaterial laboratories. These laboratories, that are devoted at inducing more virtuous behaviors in the transportation policies, are constituted by equipment and software tools, mainly located in the region’s universities, acti…
Bitumen stabilized ballast: a potential solution for railway track-bed
2016
Railway ballast degradation under dynamic loads progressively leads to loss of mechanical performance and geometry of the track, so that maintenance interventions are frequently needed. In order to system- atically avoid this issue, recently solutions have been proposed to reinforce track-bed by using polyur- ethane and/or resins as well as asphalt layers among others. Nonetheless, their main limitations are related to the high initial cost and low productivity. To cope with these limitations, in this study, bitumen stabilized ballast (BSB) is proposed as a new solu- tion for ballast stabilization. This method aims at improving durability and reducing settlement by mod- ifying both stiffnes…
Optimización de las propiedades de emulsión de betún para la estabilización de balasto
2017
Ballasted track, while providing economical and practical advantages, is associated with high costs and material consumption due to frequent maintenance. More sustainable alternatives to conventional ballasted trackbeds should therefore aim at extending its durability, particularly considering ongoing increases in traffic speed and loads. In this regard, the authors have investigated a solution consisting of bitumen stabilised ballast (BSB), designed to be used for new trackbeds as well as in reinforcing existing ones. This study presents the idea behind the technology and then focuses on a specific part of its development: the optimisation of bitumen emulsion properties and dosage in relat…
Mono and Stereoscopic Image Analysis for Detecting the Transverse Profile of Worn-Out Rails
2012
AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to suggest a new procedure for reconstructing the transverse profile of rails in operation by means of image-processing technique. This methodological approach is based on the “information” contained in high-resolution photographic images of tracks and on specific algorithms which allow to obtain the exact geometric profile of the rails and therefore to measure the state of the rail-head extrados wear. The analyses and the results concern rails taken from railway lines under upgrading by means of mono- and stereoscopic methods which are appropriate to be employed in laboratory applications or in high-efficiency surveys in situ.
High Performance Bi-Block Sleeper for Improvement the Performances of Ballasted Railway Track
2012
Abstract This article focuses on the performance of an innovative railway sleeper, recently patented in Italy and called “HP-BB” (High Performance Bi-Block sleeper), under different efficiency conditions of the ballast. The research is carried out through a comparative assessment of traditional mono- and bi-block sleepers, evaluating the lateral resistance of the single sleeper thought as independent of the other constituents of the track.