Abstract:

The railroad track system and its components are a critical transportation asset that is responsible for transmitting rolling stock wheel loads to the roadbed. To ensure safe and efficient operations, railroads perform frequent track inspections, some of which generate substantial amounts of track health data. Furthermore, with the rise of data science tools and machine learning methods, the potential for these data to move maintenance and safety towards more robust analysis is possible. This presentation will provide an overview of track assessment tools and data requirements. Results from multiple track geometry and heath assessment systems will be presented to show the relationship between the change of track geometry and track component condition for different types of track locations, such as curved and tangent track segments. Results show non-intuitive correlations between track geometry, degradation of track component health, and the initial condition of the track within a given maintenance interval. Findings have the potential to improve maintenance effectiveness and prioritization and provide a method for quantifying track degradation rates under different operating conditions and maintenance scenarios. These outputs fill a criticalresearch need and encourage further development of a mechanistic-empirical approach to railway track system design and analysis.

Bio:

J. Riley Edwards, Ph.D., P.E., is an Assistant Professor in the Rail Transportation and Engineering Center (RailTEC) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Heobtained his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Vanderbilt University, and his MS and PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research interests are railway infrastructure track system and component design and performance and failure modes associated with infrastructure components. Dr. Edwards has published over 100 conference proceedings and over 70 journal articles related to the design, analysis, performance, and failure modes of railway infrastructure and its components. Riley also serves as the Deputy Associate Director for the National University Rail Center of Excellence, a US DOT transportation center funded by the Federal Railroad Administration.