Technical Papers
Jan 11, 2016

Predictive Maintenance Model for Ballast Tamping

Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 4

Abstract

In order to optimally schedule railway track maintenance operations, it is essential to accurately estimate future track conditions. This study proposes a railway track geometry degradation model that considers uncertainties in the forecast by defining a track geometry reliability parameter. The degradation model is integrated in a multiobjective optimization approach to assess railway track maintenance strategies considering a cost–reliability trade off. Finally, a numerical application of the model to a real case study is presented. The results show the usefulness of the proposed approach to guarantee a required track geometry performance with effective maintenance investments.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Portuguese Railway Infrastructure Manager, REFER, E.P.E., for its support and cooperation. The support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, FCT (Project Reference PTDC/SENTRA/112975/2009) and MIT Portugal is also gratefully acknowledged.

References

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Published In

Go to Journal of Transportation Engineering
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 142Issue 4April 2016

History

Received: Sep 29, 2014
Accepted: Oct 7, 2015
Published online: Jan 11, 2016
Published in print: Apr 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Jun 11, 2016

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Authors

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Luis Filipe Caetano [email protected]
Ph.D. Student, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Univ. de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal (corresponding author). E-mail: [email protected]
Paulo Fonseca Teixeira [email protected]
Assistant Professor, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Univ. de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected]

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