Latest projects / ASSETS4RAIL

ASSETS4RAIL

November 2018 till May 2021

4,710,167.25 €

Assets4Rail shares the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking view of having an ageing European railway infrastructure that needs to cope with the expected increased traffics in the future. Likewise, reliable rolling stock will be required to crystallize the desired modal shift to rail. Both goals relay on a proactive and cost-effective maintenance and intervention system in the assets. Assets4Rail aims to contribute to this modal shift by exploring, adapting and testing cutting-edge technologies for railway asset monitoring and maintenance. To achieve that, Assets4Rail follows a twofold approach, including infrastructure (tunnel, bridges, track geometry, and safety systems) and vehicles. A dedicated Building information model (BIM) will be the keystone of the infrastructure part of the project. This model with integrated algorithms will gather and analyze the information collected by specific sensors which will monitor subsurface tunnel defects, fatigue consumption, noise and vibrations of bridges as well as track geometry. On the other hand, train monitoring will include the installation of track-side and underframe imaging automated system to collect data for detecting specific types of defects that have non-negligible impacts on infrastructure. The additional use of the RFID technology will enable the smooth identification of trains and single elements, associated with the identified rolling stock failures. The combination of mentioned real-time collected data with existing data along the implementation of deep learning techniques for assessing large data volumes will pave the way towards a cost-effective and proactive maintenance process of infrastructure and rolling stock. In addition, two innovative intervention methods, noise rail dampers and the cleaning of long tunnel drainage pipes, will be validated on field. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 826250.

EURECAT, Spain

Task Leader.

  • Analyze data using probabilistic methods, such as Bayesian networks, to determine interdependencies between variables, and determine, identifying which data has influence in the others, which information should be monitored and introduced in the BIM platform.
  • Setting up of specifications for tunnel drainage cleaning technology, reviewing available technologies with potential to be used in pipe cleaning, analysis and selection of the most suitable technology and contribution in the building of a testing aggregate.
  • Support in the validation of the drainage pipes cleaning system and slots with high pressure water. Assessment of the test results from technical and operational point of view.
  • Provide Technical coordination and application of a quantitative risk analysis approach in the model for the determination of severity effects affecting the infrastructure by rolling stocks failures.
  • Give support about the characteristics of the defects to be monitored and validation of the developed model.