Graz University of Technology

Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy

Life Cycle Management of Track

EconomicModellingforPreventiveMaintenance

Peter VEIT
Paris, 17.06.2015

TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit www.ebw.tugraz.atParis, 17.6.2015
Life Cycle Management

Life Cycle Management - Sustainability

Benjamin Franklin

Sustainability is obviously a
sustainable problem within railways.

TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
Life Cycle Management Service Life
Point of time for renewing of a section
Service Life must not base on average figures!
Standard elements depict the average service life under certain
boundary conditions! However, in reality the service lives show a
distribution.

neglected
maintenance?
too much
neighbouring
maintenance?
sections?
speed
sub-soil? restrictions?
dewatering?

or simply worse or simply better

behaviour than behaviour than
the average? the average?

TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
 Life Cycle Management Quality Behaviour

Technical Evaluation measured data since 2000

data of 4,000 km of main
track: type and age of track
and components, recording
car data, maintenance
executed, transport data
and alignment
re
figu
lity
qu a
Predictive maintenance is required,
otherwiseitisjustfirebrigadework
withnopossibilityforoptimisation!
time
quality figure

E
TIM
trac
k km

bn t
Q(t) = Qn e

TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
 Life Cycle Management Maintenance Prediction

TrackPROPHET track alignment

Whatdoweknowprecisely?

? ?
The prognosis is based on time series of data
- back to the past until the point of time of track installation and
- further to the future knowing the change of the b-rate over time

75% of all track shows high rates of degradation immediately after

relaying. In these cases it is vital to go for a stabilising tamping
after half a year.
TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
 Life Cycle Management Maintenance Prediction

TrackPROPHET track alignment

The prognosis is based on time series of data
- back to the past until the point of time of track installation and
- further to the future knowing the change of the b-rate over time

TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
Life Cycle Management Conform Threshold Values

Conform Threshold Values

Investment

QualityBehaviour
Time
QualityDecrease

ServiceLife

TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
 Life Cycle Management Maintenance Prediction

TrackPROPHET track alignment

The prognosis work from the time slot having precise data
- back to the past to the point of time of track installation and
- further to the future knowing the change of the b-rate over time

slow order

As such prognosis can be done for all types of track work the entire working
cycle can be calculated by analysing different recording car signals.
The prognosis show possible service lives but cannot define the economical
one.

TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
Life Cycle Management Maintenance Prediction

TrackPROPHET rail pad exchange

Development of rail inclination

over time allows identifying the
latest point of time for rail pad
exchange

TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
Life Cycle Management Maintenance Prediction

TrackPROPHET ballast-pollution

verticalalignmentleftrail

Thisnewinformationallowsestimatingtheresidualservicelife ofballast.

TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
Life Cycle Management Point of Time of Reinvestment

Economic Point of Time for Reinvestment

Monitoring of Annuities
life cycle costs total
depreciation
cost of operational hindrances
maintenance

!
Calculating the dynamic annual average costs for different service
lives show the service life with the least costs.
TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
Life Cycle Management Tamping and Grinding

Tamping and Grinding

standard deviation vertical

LLT only
integrated maintenance

0.6 mm

0.4 mm

0.2 mm

year

TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
Life Cycle Management Point of Time of Reinvestment

Economic Point of Time for Reinvestment

Monitoring of Annuities

loss in case of
postponing
RANKING

reinvestment
TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
Life Cycle Management Point of Time of Reinvestment

Economic Point of Time for Reinvestment

Wonderful, there is time kept, just some

maintenance necessary in 2016.

TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
Life Cycle Management Point of Time of Reinvestment

Economic Point of Time for Reinvestment

minimum LCC possible

Bad luck, optimal time already passed.

It was wrong to execute the expensive maintenance action in 2013.

The optimum would have been to renew the section in 2014.
However, that does not mean to renew it as soon as possible. It
should be renewed not before 2018.
TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
Life Cycle Management Point of Time of Reinvestment

Economic Point of Time for Reinvestment

In this case the expensive maintenance action

executed in 2013 was a proper decision, as
thus the LCC will further on reduce.

TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
Life Cycle Management Point of Time of Reinvestment

Economic Point of Time for Reinvestment

If not taking costs of operational hindrances (COH) into

account, aa track
trackit it
might show
might thatthat
show picture.
picture. COH can
change the graph totally. COH depicts the costs of
reduced availability of track and thus must be part of the
evaluation.

TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
Life Cycle Management Point of Time of Reinvestment

Economic Point of Time for Reinvestment

The optimal point of time is the year 2016. However,

as the graph is very flat, is the result reliable?
Of course not! However, its up to the budget situation,
whether to execute the renewal or to postpone it!

TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
Life Cycle Management Further Aspects on Tamping

Length of Track Work

Increasing transport often
leads to decreasing track total cost
possessions. This can be

Costs [/km]
balanced to a certain cost of operational
hindrances
amount by high capacity
cost of work
machines. However, to
work too short sections
lead to al loss of quality Duration of Track Closure
and increasing costs.

Single Failure Tamping

Single failure tamping aims to enlarge the tamping cycle of through
going tamping but must not substitute it.
Not targeting the initial position but the average position of the
adjacent sections!
Over-lifting (Design Tamping)
TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015
 Life Cycle Management Point of Time of Reinvestment

For good luck this is not an academic story. Since 2011 my institute
is doing these calculations for main track reinvestment projects of the
Austrian Federal Railways.
TU Graz I Institute of Railway Engineering and Transport Economy I Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Peter Veit Paris, 17.6.2015