“RAILCRACK – STUDY OF A NEW PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY FOR CRACKING IN RAILROAD RAILS”. www.railcrack.com

Funding

Project co-financed by CDTI through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Project Budget = 485.281,00 €. CDTI Accepted Budget = 428.303,00 €. CDTI aid (partially refundable) = 364.057,55 €.

Object

The general objective of this project is the study of a new predictive maintenance technology applied to the cracking and breaking of railroad rails due to cyclic loads. The development is based on the application of simulation methodologies validated through crack growth tests in real rails, which allow to reproduce the evolution of cracks in railroad rails and the extrapolation to different types of infrastructures and geometries, frequency of use, loads and rolling stock by applying artificial intelligence techniques based on neural networks. The achievement of this technology is the starting point for, based on the current technology of track inspection by auscultation vehicle, and without altering the normal use of the line, to allow a reliable diagnosis of the actual state of the track, and in the case of existing damage to establish guidelines for predictive and corrective maintenance. This will ensure the reliability of the infrastructure, establishing safety margins on it, and optimizing the maintenance and inspection work, reducing the associated costs.

Collaborations

Universidad de Cantabria. Laboratorio de la División de Ciencia e Ingeniería de los Materiales – LADICIM. www.ladicim.es