An integrated methodology for the prognosis of ballast degradation in railway turnouts

Author(s):  
Seyed Mohammad Asadzadeh ◽  
Roberto Galeazzi

This study proposes an integrated methodology for modelling and predicting ballast degradation in turnouts by exploiting loaded track geometry data. The rate of increase in track irregularities with respect to the cumulative loading of the track is the index of ballast degradation to be predicted. The methodology combines the fractal analysis method with probabilistic modeling and Bayesian inference to design a prognostic tool that forecasts the expected ballast degradation rate over a period of three months. The foundation of the proposed method is a universal degradation model for the ballast in turnouts, which fuses technological, operational, and environmental information to prognose the rate of ballast deterioration. The methodology has been verified on 15 different turnouts of the Danish railway infrastructure.

Author(s):  
Derya OZTURK

Urban sprawl is one of the most important problems in urban development due to its negative environmental and societal impacts. Therefore, the spatial pattern of urban growth should be accurately analyzed and well understood for effective urban planning. This paper focuses on urban sprawl analysis in the Atakum, Ilkadim and Canik districts of Samsun, Turkey. In this study, urban sprawl was examined over a period of 24 years using Shannon's entropy and fractal analysis based on remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS). The built-up areas in 1989, 2000 and 2013 were extracted from Landsat TM/ETM+/OLI images using the maximum likelihood classification method, and urban form changes in the 1989–2013 period were investigated. The Shannon's entropy method was used to determine the degree of urban sprawl, and a fractal analysis method based on box counting was used to characterize the urban sprawl. The results show that Atakum, Ilkadim and Canik experienced important changes and have considerable sprawl and complex characteristics now. The study also revealed that there is no monotonic relationship between Shannon's entropy and fractal dimension.


Author(s):  
Iman Soleimanmeigouni ◽  
Alireza Ahmadi ◽  
Iman Arasteh Khouy ◽  
Christophe Letot

Tamping is one of the major activities undertaken by railway maintenance managers to recover the track geometry condition. Modelling the effectiveness of tamping along with track geometry degradation is essential for long-term prediction of track geometry behaviour. The aim of this study is to analyse the effect of tamping on the different track geometry measurements, i.e. longitudinal level, alignment and cant, based on inspection car records from a part of the Main Western Line in Sweden. To model recovery after tamping, a probabilistic approach is applied. The track geometry condition before tamping was considered as the dominant factor for modelling the model parameters. Correlation analysis was performed to measure the linear relation between the recoveries of the different geometry measures. The results show a moderate correlation between the recovery of the longitudinal level and that of the cant, and a weak correlation between the recovery of the longitudinal level and that of the alignment. Linear regression and Wiener process were also applied to model track geometry degradation and to obtain degradation rates. The effect of tamping on degradation rate was analysed. It was observed that degradation rate increased after tamping.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 860
Author(s):  
Qingshan Duan ◽  
Jiejie An ◽  
Hanling Mao ◽  
Dongwu Liang ◽  
Hao Li ◽  
...  

The work is intended to summarize the recent progress in the work of fractal theory in packaging material to provide important insights into applied research on fractal in packaging materials. The fractal analysis methods employed for inorganic materials such as metal alloys and ceramics, polymers, and their composites are reviewed from the aspects of fractal feature extraction and fractal dimension calculation methods. Through the fractal dimension of packaging materials and the fractal in their preparation process, the relationship between the fractal characteristic parameters and the properties of packaging materials is discussed. The fractal analysis method can qualitatively and quantitatively characterize the fractal characteristics, microstructure, and properties of a large number of various types of packaging materials. The method of using fractal theory to probe the preparation and properties of packaging materials is universal; the relationship between the properties of packaging materials and fractal dimension will be a critical trend of fractal theory in the research on properties of packaging materials.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1017 ◽  
pp. 187-192
Author(s):  
Qiu Yan Wang ◽  
Zhi Qiang Liang ◽  
Xi Bin Wang ◽  
Wen Xiang Zhao ◽  
Yong Bo Wu ◽  
...  

Conventional characterization methods of grinding surface using surface roughness parameters, e.g., Ra, depend on either the resolution of the measuring instrument or the length of the sample. But fractal dimension (FD) as a scale-independent fractal parameter is effective to evaluate the ground surface at any length scale and represent lots of surface phenomenon at its relevant length scales. In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) box-counting fractal analysis method is used to investigate ground surface morphology of monocrystal sapphire by calculating 3D fractal dimension of the ground surface. The results obtained show that fractal dimension decreases with the increasing surface roughness. For the ground surface with higher fractal dimension, its microtopography is more exquisite with minor defects. Once the fractal dimension become smaller, deep cracks and pronounced defects are exhibited in ground surface. Moreover, the ground surface obtained in ductile mode has much higher fractal dimension than that in brittle mode. Therefore, the fractal analysis method has the potential to reveal the ground surface characteristics of monocrystal sapphire.


Author(s):  
R. K. Liu ◽  
P. Xu ◽  
Q. X. Sun

During train runs, the interaction between train wheels and the rail track underneath makes track geometry change, which in turn results in all kinds of track irregularities. After the 6th train speed raise of China in 2007, railway transportation has shown three main new features: speed-raised, heavy-loading and high-density. Under these features, changes in railway track irregularities of China have also presented some new characteristics: higher deterioration rates of track irregularities and more frequent occurrences of track exceptions. To ensure the train operational safety and increase the transportation service quality, the preventive inspection and maintenance of railway track facilities have been put forward once again by railway maintenance departments of China. A precondition for the preventive inspection and maintenance is about how to accurately evaluate and predict the future track condition according to the historical track inspection data. In this paper, based on the characteristics of track irregularity changes and in accordance with the calculus thinking, we have developed a short-range prediction model called SRPM. The model uses track waveform data generated by the track geometry car (TGC) to predict track irregularities of a unit track section with the length of 100m for each day in a future short period of time. An algorithm for using SRPM to predict track irregularities has also been designed. According to the designed algorithm, using ORACLE database and computer program languages, we have programmed a computer software named P-SRPM. We then used P-SRPM to deal with 25 sets of TGC-generated track waveform data from the up going track of the Beijing-Shanghai railway (Jing-Hu railway) administrated by Jinan Railway Bureau (JRB) and predicted track irregularities of unit sections in the railway track segment. Finally, errors in these predictions were analyzed in both temporal and spatial dimensions. From the error analysis results, we come to the conclusion that SRPM can fairly accurately make short-range predictions for track irregularities of each unit section in the JRB-administrated Jing-Hu railway track (up going).


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-30
Author(s):  
Yuni Sesempuli ◽  
◽  
Bambang Iswanto ◽  
Diana Irvindiaty Hendrawan ◽  
◽  
...  

Abstract. The population growth with its activities causes pressure on the Krukut River. Load management of pollutants that enters the river is based on the self purification of the river. This study aims to analyze the river characteristics and degradation rate of Krukut River. Krukut River which is a research location has a length of ± 9.04 km. Characteristics of Krukut River has a type of small rocky riverbed and irregular with manning coefficient from 0.035 to 0.045. The depth ranging from 0,99 - 2 m, with a current velocity from 0,3 to 1,29 m/s. Krukut River discharge at 2,873-7,889 m3/sec. Streeter Phelps modeling to find out the constant rate of degradation of Krukut River which resulted in the value of DO and BOD. The rate of increase of dissolved oxygen (Ka) with the value of Ka range of 1,586-4,542 d-1, the standard value should be 1,494 d-1. The results of degradation rate (Kd) of the study obtained values range 0,285–0,394 d-1 with a default value of 0,501 d-1. For a settling rate (Ks) the range of 0,070 d-1 –0,096 d-1 with a standard value should be 0,751 d-1 which means the precipitation process is quite slow. Keywords: pollution degradation rate, Krukut River, Streeter Phelps methode, selfpurification, water quality


Author(s):  
Hui-Wen Huang ◽  
Hung-Chih Hung ◽  
Chunkuan Shih ◽  
Swu Yih ◽  
Ming-Huei Chen ◽  
...  

The digitalized Instrumentation and Control (I&C) system of Nuclear power plants can provide more powerful overall operation capability, and user friendly man-machine interface. The operator can obtain more information through digital I&C system. However, while I&C system being digitalized, three issues are encountered: 1) software common-cause failure, 2) the interaction failure between operator and digital instrumentation and control system interface, and 3) the non-detectability of software failure. These failures might defeat defense echelons, and make the Diversity and Defense-in-Depth (D3) analysis be more difficult. This work developed an integrated methodology to evaluate nuclear power plant safety effect by interactions between operator and digital I&C system, and then propose improvement recommendations. This integrated methodology includes component-level software fault tree, system-level sequence-tree method and nuclear power plant computer simulation analysis. Software fault tree can clarify the software failure structure in digital I&C systems. Sequence-tree method can identify the interaction process and relationship among operator and I&C systems in each D3 echelon in a design basis event. Nuclear power plant computer simulation analysis method can further analyze the available backup facilities and allowable manual action duration for the operator when the digital I&C fail to function. Applying this methodology to evaluate the performance of digital nuclear power plant D3 design, could promote the nuclear power plant operation safety. The operator can then trust the nuclear power plant than before, when operating the highly automatic digital I&C facilities.


Author(s):  
Iman Soleimanmeigouni ◽  
Alireza Ahmadi ◽  
Uday Kumar

Increased demand for railway transportation is creating a need for higher train speeds and axle loads. These, in turn, increase the likelihood of track degradation and failures. Modelling the degradation behaviour of track geometry and development of applicable and effective maintenance strategies has become a challenging concern for railway infrastructure managers. During the last three decades, a number of track geometry degradation and maintenance modelling approaches have been developed to predict and improve the railway track geometry condition. In this paper, existing track geometry measures are identified and discussed. Available models for track geometry degradation are reviewed and classified. Tamping recovery models are also reviewed and discussed to identify the issues and challenges of different available methodologies and models. Existing track geometry maintenance models are reviewed and critical observations on each contribution are provided. The most important track maintenance scheduling models are identified and discussed. Finally, the paper provides directions for further research.


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