1. Railway Pro Investment Summit European Railway Business in a Global Environment
Bucharest
11 October 2016

2. Decision Support Tool for Rail Infrastructure Managers
DESTinationRAIL
Decision Support Tool for Rail Infrastructure Managers

3. What is the DESTinationRAIL Project
Horizon 2020 funded
Runs for 3 years from May 2015 to April 2018
Looking at reducing Infrastructure Costs
Delivers practical solutions

4. Project Aim
The aim of DESTination RAIL is to provide solutions for a number of problems faced by EU infrastructure managers.
Novel techniques for identifying, analysing and remediating critical rail infrastructure will be developed.
Here you can see some of the areas in which we are working as part of the project.
Bridge Scour
Scour
Rock Falls
Flooding

5. Objectives
These solutions will be implemented using a decision support tool, which allows rail infrastructure managers to make rational investment choices, based on reliable data
The project is using the FACT methodology FIND,ANALYSE,CLASIFY AND TREAT as a process to deliver the Decision support tool. This slide illustrates the various actions required to feed the decision support tool;
Data from staff on the ground and from rolling stock (FIND) is analysed before passing to the IMS RISK TOOL which will include Condition monitoring from structures the relevant rules and regulations (CLASSIFY)All of which will be fed into the decision support tool to produce a number of options for the Infrastructure Manager to consider.(TREAT)

6. Monitoring of Structures
We now turn to structures. Work by the University of Twente, RODIS, Irish Rail and GDG to date has concentrated on an Irish demonstration study to instrument the 160 year rail bridge which crosses the River Boyne,
The instruments deployed include accelerometer’s and strain gauges. A weather station was installed on the bridge and sensor measurements are triggered by either a passing train or by a wind speed in excess of 17.5 m/sec. The monitoring system went live in October The dynamic structural and soil-structure interaction response will be used as input into probabilistic bridge models being developed as part of the project.

7. Monitoring of Structures
TRIAXIAL ACCELEROMETRES and other measuring equipment in use on the bridge. To determine actual stress etc. in order to establish how the bridge is performing under load conditions.

8. Use of Drones for monitoring slope stability
Monitoring, collection, systematization and analysis in real time
Moving from rock faces to embankments and cuttings now where trials using drones have been carried out on sections of the Croatia railway network. The data is used to generate cross-sections and images used to calculate volumes etc.

9. Field tests
Ground Penetrating Radar is used as a non-destructive method of surveying a stretch of track
GPR surveying relies on the propagation of electromagnetic waves - and thus the magnetic and electric properties of the materials in the ground
The first photo shows the GPR equipment mounted on the Robel vehicle used to test the effectiveness of GPR.
The second illustrates the track being soaked prior to testing to ensure that any wet spots would be clearly shown.
to our estimations it will cost around DKK/km for GPR scanning, data processing, calibration drillings and verification drillings. Based on experiences from renewal projects we know that “normal” core drilling samples for renewal planning costs DKK/km, so not only do we get better data, we also get it much, much cheaper.
GPR mounted on Robel for the field test
Water being poured continuously for the measurement

10. Mud pumping/Wet Spots
Wet spots are a common feature on many railways however predicting where there will happen depends upon a number of factors therefore the objective of the tests were to
Assess the abilities of Ground Penetrating Radar to:
detect anomalies in track subsurface body like ballast pockets and animal burrows
Mapping the distribution of water in the track bed
Fines from mud pumping clearly visible on sleeper ends and adjacent ballast. Red circle indicates the area where water was introduced into the track.
Blue markings indicate the extent of mud pumping sleepers at the site.

11. What have we Achieved at the half way stage?
GPR ( Ground Penetrating Radar) field tests carried out in Norway (JBV) and Denmark (Bdane) with large savings in terms of renewal planning.
“Wet spot” and other test data will be published in October as part of a report called “Guidelines to find hot spots on rail networks”.
Use of Drones now taking place on Croatian railways HZ
Workshop to demonstrate the Whole Life Cost and Traffic Flow models being held in Dublin on 25th October 2016
Probabilistic fatigue analysis being tested on Irish Railways IE
Bane Denmark are now surveying 5-6 years in advance with GPR for track renewals to determine ballast condition and renewal.
Compared to conventional methods of core drilling samples with a cost of euro per km and GPR supported by calibration And verification drillings which makes the process much cheaper and fast with costs reducing to 1300 euros per km.
Major benefits have been seen when using this method to asses ballast conditions over bridges and in electrified areas.

12. Future Actions
Refine the Whole Life Cycle Cost and Traffic Flow models following the Workshop.
Arranging site visits to the Boyne Bridge and an embankment in Slovenia.
Refining the data from various measurement sites.
Publishing a number of Guidelines.
Talking to Infrastructure Managers and other potential users as reports are issued.

13. Thank You for you attention
Michael Robson, Member of the Executive Board DESTinationRAIL