Evaluation of the effect of tamping on the track geometry condition: A case study

• Tamping is one of the major activities applied by railway maintenance managers to recover track geometry condition. Modelling the tamping effectiveness along with track geometry degradation is essential for long term prediction of track geometry behaviour. The aim of this study is to analyse theeffect of tamping on the different track geometry measures, i.e. longitudinal level, alignment and cant; on the basis of inspection car records from a part of Main Western Line in Sweden. To model recovery after tamping a probabilistic approach is applied. The track geometry condition before tamping was considered as the dominant factor for modelling the model parameters. Correlation analysis has performed to measure the linear relation between the recoveries of the different geometry measures. The results show a moderate correlation between the recovery of the longitudinal level and that of the cant, and a weak correlation between the recovery of the longitudinal level and that of the alignment. Linear regression and Wiener process are also applied to model track geometry degradation and to obtain degradation rates. Theeffect of tamping on degradation rate is analysed. It is observed that the degradation rate was increased after tamping intervention.  

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Annan samhällsbyggnadsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Other Civil Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Correlation analysis

geometry measures

probabilistic model

railway maintenance

tamping

tamping effectiveness

track degradation

track geometry

Weiner process

Operation and Maintenance Engineering

Drift och underhållsteknik

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)