Fatigue In Railway Infrastructure

Fatigue is a major issue affecting safety and quality of service in the railway industry. This book reviews key aspects of this important subject. It begins by providing an overview of the subject, discussing fatigue at the wheel-rail interface and in other aspects of infrastructure. It then considers fatigue in railway and tramway track, looking at causes of potential failure in such areas as rails and fixings as well as sleepers. It also reviews failure points in structures such as embankments and cuttings. The book analyses fatigue in railway bridges, looking in particular at masonry arch bridges as well as metal and concrete bridges. Two final chapters review safety and reliability issues affecting escalators and lifts. Fatigue in railway infrastructure is a helpful reference for those in the railway industry responsible for infrastructure maintenance as well as those researching this important subject. Provides a concise review of fatigue in the railway infrastructure Examines the causes of potential failure in rails, fixings and sleepers Analyses fatigue in railway bridges including masonry arch, metal and concrete structures

Economic growth, security and sustainability across Europe are at risk due to ageing railway infrastructure systems. At present, the majority of such systems are aging and some have even reached their initial design lives. These issues align with a major challenge in civil engineering: how to restore and improve urban infrastructure and built environments. Policy, environmental and physical barriers must be addressed and overcome. The complex and interconnected nature of the problem means that there is a need for academia, industry, communities and governments to work collaboratively. The challenges posed by extreme events from natural and man-made disasters are urgent. Rail Infrastructure Resilience: A Best-Practices Handbook presents developed improvement methods for rail infrastructure systems, toward resilience to extreme conditions. It shows how best to use new information in the engineering design, maintenance, construction and renewal of rail infrastructure resilience, through knowledge exchange and capability development. The book presents the outcome of a major European research project, known as the RISEN project. RISEN aimed to enhance knowledge creation and transfer using both international and intersectoral secondment mechanisms among European Advanced Rail Research Universities and SMEs, and Non-EU, leading rail universities, providing methodological approaches and practical tools for restoring and improving railway infrastructure systems for extreme events. Edited and written by members of this project, this book will be essential reading for researchers and practitioners hoping to find practical solutions to the challenges of rail infrastructure resilience. Offers a best-practices handbook for rail infrastructure resilience from the leaders in the field Paints a holistic picture of the rail transport system, showing that infrastructure maintenance intervention can be enhanced through advanced monitoring systems and resilience design Presents rail infrastructure resilience and advanced condition monitoring, allowing a better understanding of the critical maintenance, renewal and retrofit needs of railways Considers how academia, industry, communities and governments can work collaboratively in order to tackle aggregated problems in rail infrastructure resilience Presents the findings from the RISEN project, the leading European project on enhancing knowledge creation and transfer of expertise on rail infrastructure resilience

Life-Cycle of Structures and Infrastructure Systems contains the lectures and papers presented at IALCCE 2023- The Eighth International Symposium on Life-Cycle Civil Engineering, held at Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy, 2-6 July, 2023. This book contains the full papers of 514 contributions presented at IALCCE 2023, including the Fazlur R. Khan Plenary Lecture, nine Keynote Lectures, and 504 technical papers from 45 countries. The papers cover recent advances and cutting-edge research in the field of life-cycle civil engineering, including emerging concepts and innovative applications related to life-cycle design, assessment, inspection, monitoring, repair, maintenance, rehabilitation, and management of structures and infrastructure systems under uncertainty. Major topics covered include life-cycle safety, reliability, risk, resilience and sustainability, life-cycle damaging processes, life-cycle design and assessment, life-cycle inspection and monitoring, life-cycle maintenance and management, life-cycle performance of special structures, life-cycle cost of structures and infrastructure systems, and life-cycle-oriented computational tools, among others. This Open Access Book provides both an up-to-date overview of the field of life-cycle civil engineering and significant contributions to the process of making more rational decisions to mitigate the life-cycle risk and improve the life-cycle reliability, resilience, and sustainability of structures and infrastructure systems exposed to multiple natural and human-made hazards in a changing climate. It will serve as a valuable reference to all concerned with life-cycle of civil engineering systems, including students, researchers, practicioners, consultants, contractors, decision makers, and representatives of managing bodies and public authorities from all branches of civil engineering.

Following on from 2005's Rail Human Factors: Supporting the Integrated Railway, this book brings together an even broader range of academics and practitioners from around the world to share their expertise and experience on rail human factors. The content is both comprehensive and cutting-edge, featuring more than 55 chapters addressing the following topics: ¢ Passengers and public ¢ Driver performance and workload ¢ Driving and cognition ¢ Train cab and interfaces: simulation and design ¢ Routes, signage, signals and drivability ¢ Signalling and control of the railway ¢ Planning for the railway ¢ Engineering work and maintenance ¢ Level crossings ¢ Accidents and safety ¢ Human error and human reliability ¢ SPADs: signals passed at danger ¢ Human factors integration and standards ¢ Impairments to performance ¢ Staff competencies and training. People and Rail Systems: Human Factors at the Heart of the Railway will be invaluable for all those concerned with making railways safer, more reliable, of higher quality and more efficient. It will be essential reading for policy-makers, researchers and industry around the world.

A proper quality of a track and other infrastructure objects represents a basic requirement for train safety and punctuality. Most of the physical systems and their components deteriorate over time. This affects performance and may lead to failures. Albert Einstein said, “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.” Only if we understand how the whole system works, taking into account its imperfections and how they influence its quality and performance will we be able to learn the rules of the game and “play better.” The book provides the readers with the necessary functional knowledge of track behaviour and comprehensively covers the function of the various track components, their interaction as elements of the track system, as well as the interaction of the track with railway vehicles. By presenting important tools for a deep understanding of track-behaviour this book aims to be a reference guide for infrastructure managers and to help them to find ways improving track quality for optimum long-term behaviour.

Fatigue is a mechanism of failure which involves the formation and growth of cracks under the action of repeated stresses. Ultimately, a crack may propagate to such an extent that total fracture of the member may occur. To avoid fatigue it is essential to design the structure with inherent fatigue strength. However, fatigue strength for variable amplitude loading is not a constant material property and any calculations are necessarily built on a number of assumptions. Cumulative damage of welded joints explores the wealth of research in this important field and its implications for the design and manufacture of welded components. After an Introduction, chapter two introduces the constant amplitude database, which contains results obtained in test conditions and which forms the basis of the basic S-N curves for various types of joint. Chapter three discusses the influence of residual stresses which can have a marked effect on fatigue behaviour. Chapter four explores variable amplitude loading and the problem of how information from laboratory tests, obtained under constant amplitude conditions, can be applied to the design of structures for service conditions. This problem is further investigated in the next chapter which is devoted to two and three level load testing. Chapters six, seven and eight look at the influence that the variety of variable loading spectra can have on fatigue strength, whether narrow or wide band loading or cycles of small stress range. Taking all of this knowledge, chapter nine discusses structure designs. Cumulative damage of welded joints is a comprehensive source of invaluable information for welding engineers, supervisors, inspection personnel and designers. It will also be of great interest for academics working in the fields of structural and mechanical engineering. Covers the wealth of research in the field of fatigue strength and its role in the design and manufacture of welded components Invaluable reference source for welding engineers, supervisors, inspection personnel and designers

Our knowledge to model, design, analyse, maintain, manage and predict the life-cycle performance of infrastructure systems is continually growing. However, the complexity of these systems continues to increase and an integrated approach is necessary to understand the effect of technological, environmental, economic, social, and political interactions on the life-cycle performance of engineering infrastructure. In order to accomplish this, methods have to be developed to systematically analyse structure and infrastructure systems, and models have to be formulated for evaluating and comparing the risks and benefits associated with various alternatives. Civil engineers must maximize the life-cycle benefits of these systems to serve the needs of our society by selecting the best balance of the safety, economy, resilience and sustainability requirements despite imperfect information and knowledge. Within the context of this book, the necessary concepts are introduced and illustrated with applications to civil and marine structures. This book is intended for an audience of researchers and practitioners world‐wide with a background in civil and marine engineering, as well as people working in infrastructure maintenance, management, cost and optimization analysis. The chapters originally published as articles in Structure and Infrastructure Engineering.

Railway transportation has become one of the main technological advances of our society. Since the first railway used to carry coal from a mine in Shropshire (England, 1600), a lot of efforts have been made to improve this transportation concept. One of its milestones was the invention and development of the steam locomotive, but commercial rail travels became practical two hundred years later. From these first attempts, railway infrastructures, signalling and security have evolved and become more complex than those performed in its earlier stages. This book will provide readers a comprehensive technical guide, covering these topics and presenting a brief overview of selected railway systems in the world. The objective of the book is to serve as a valuable reference for students, educators, scientists, faculty members, researchers, and engineers.