A Stochastic Approach for Life-Cycle Cost Analysis of Railway Turnouts Exposed to Climate Uncertainties

Mehmet Hamarat, Sakdirat Kaewunruen

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Abstract

A turnout, a component on modern railway tracks, provides operational flexibility by diverting the vehicles to different directions between two routes. A crossing area is a part of turnout where two tracks intersect at a point. At this part, the rail profiles vary along the track and moreover, some of crossing types (i.e., common crossings) have a discontinuity. As a result, high-frequency high impact forces emerge at the crossing area, especially on the crossing nose. Inherently, the repeated forces result in a fatigue problem over turnout crossing noses, which is the root cause of high maintenance costs in railway operations. Most of the studies conducted to date is about the physical phenomena such as environmental effects, material properties, dynamic characteristics of the vehicle/track or management such as maintenance strategies. However, regarding the high costs owing to turnouts in the maintenance budget, an investigation of the problem from an economic aspect is believed to be beneficial for Infrastructure Managers, since it is the top concern for IMs.
Original languageEnglish
Article number1142
Number of pages3
JournalProceedings
Volume2
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 17 Sept 2018
Event2018 International Symposium on Rail Infrastructure Systems Engineering - Brno, Czech Republic
Duration: 5 Jun 20185 Jun 2018

Keywords

  • stochastic approach
  • life cycle cost
  • railway
  • turnouts
  • switches
  • crossings
  • climate
  • uncertainties

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