Advancing Railway Asset Management Using Track Geometry Deterioration Modeling Visualization
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 148, Issue 2
Abstract
Railway tracks need to be monitored to ensure safe operations and cost-effective maintenance. The monitoring is commonly conducted using a track recording car that describes deviations from an ideal track geometry. Over time, the measurements provide time series data that can be used to model the observed track geometry deterioration process. However, without simplification, the modeling results are generally too complex to be utilized to their full extent in track asset management. Therefore, this study aimed to implement visualization techniques for track geometry deterioration modeling results analysis which benefit track asset management. The best practices on track geometry deterioration modeling were studied and applied to the track geometry history of a track section located in Finland. After testing the establishing modeling principles, proposals were made regarding the use of the results in practice. This paper presents visualization techniques that use the modeling results of individual cross-sections to generate information about longer sections of track and even whole rail networks. These visualizations digest the massive amount of information from the modeling and present it in an informative way for practitioners to utilize and benefit from. Thus, this study fills the gap between research and practice in railway track geometry deterioration modeling.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions.
Acknowledgments
The authors want to thank the Tampere University Foundation Sr and the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (Väylävirasto) for their valued co-operation.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 148 • Issue 2 • February 2022
Copyright
This work is made available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
History
Received: Jun 28, 2021
Accepted: Sep 30, 2021
Published online: Nov 24, 2021
Published in print: Feb 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Apr 24, 2022
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Cited by
- Stefan Marschnig, Peter Veit, Assessing Average Maintenance Frequencies and Service Lives of Railway Tracks: The Standard Element Approach, New Research on Railway Engineering and Transportation, 10.5772/intechopen.110488, (2024).
- Stefan Offenbacher, Christian Koczwara, Matthias Landgraf, Stefan Marschnig, A Methodology Linking Tamping Processes and Railway Track Behaviour, Applied Sciences, 10.3390/app13042137, 13, 4, (2137), (2023).
- Mikko Sauni, Heikki Luomala, Pauli Kolisoja, Kalle Vaismaa, Framework for implementing track deterioration analytics into railway asset management, Built Environment Project and Asset Management, 10.1108/BEPAM-04-2022-0058, 12, 6, (871-886), (2022).