Rolling stock wheelsets research earns engineers IMechE prize
Dr Adam Bevan and Paul Molyneux-Berry have co-written an award winning article describing the project entitled “Optimisation of wheelset maintenance using whole-system cost modelling” and has been awarded the IMechE's prestigious William Alexander Agnew Meritorious Award/Clarence Noel Goodall Award.
Tue, 26 Aug 2014 15:42:00 BST
The Institute of Railway Reseach’s Dr Adam Bevan and Paul Molyneux-Berry collect the prestigious William Alexander Agnew Meritorious Award / Clarence Noel Goodall Award
MAINTENANCE and renewal of rolling stock wheelsets can be a significant cost for rail operators. Now researchers based at the University of Huddersfield have helped to develop a new software-based tool for investigating and optimising the maintenance schedule, leading to cost savings and increases in vehicle service provision – by ensuring that wheelsets last longer and track damage is reduced.
Dr Adam Bevan and Paul Molyneux-Berry, engineers based at the University’s Institute of Railway Research (IRR) have co-written an article describing the project entitled “Optimisation of wheelset maintenance using whole-system cost modelling” which appeared in the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers: Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit. This article has been awarded the prestigious William Alexander Agnew Meritorious Award / Clarence Noel Goodall Award by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). The prize will be presented later in the year.
“The wheelsets are one of the most expensive items for maintenance and comprise a significant portion of the whole-life costs of railway rolling stock” said Dr Bevan, who is Head of Enterprise for the IRR. “So the goal of the project was to develop a tool that could be used to help operators and maintainers optimise and reduce costs of wheelset maintenance and renewal activities.”
The research was conducted in collaboration with Serco Rail Technical Services, whose specialities include asset management, and was part of the rail industry research programme managed by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) and funded by the Department of Transport. This work formed part of the Stage 2 development of an industry decision-support tool known as the Vehicle Track Interaction Strategic Model (VTISM), which calculates the whole-life, whole-system costs for the vehicle-track interface. VTISM is jointly owned by RSSB and Network Rail and managed by RSSB on behalf of the Vehicle / Track System Interface Committee (V/T SIC).
The latest stage in the development of VTISM has included the development of the Wheelset Management Model (WMM) – as described in the award winning article – which enables rail operators to predict the deterioration of wheels and to determine the costs of maintenance and renewal. Research included a large number of computer simulations that predicted the costs associated with inspection, maintenance and renewal of wheelsets for a range of passenger fleets. The article includes the results for a typical fleet of diesel multiple units – a realistic industry case study that demonstrates the capability of WMM. Combining these enhancements with the existing VTISM tools helps to determine the impact of system changes on both wheelset and track asset management costs and provides a means for optimising whole-system costs.
- The article “Optimisation of wheelset maintenance using whole-system cost modelling” is authored by Adam Bevan and Paul Molyneux-Berry of the University of Huddersfield’s IRR, with Steve Mills, of the RSSB, and Andrew Rhodes and Daniel Ling of Serco Rail Technical Services.
