A $545,000 grant will allow a team from CQUniversity’s Centre for Railway Engineering to deliver research aimed at boosting the life cycle of railway tracks.
CQUniversity associate professor Maksym Spiryagin, the project’s leader, said the work needs to be done to remedy the impacts modern, more powerful trains have on the railway track infrastructure.
“We are advancing our computer simulation methodologies to understand the behaviour of locomotives used for heavy-haul trains, in order to determine the best possible driving strategies each locomotive should use,” Spiryagin said.
“The project will investigate the impact of increasing locomotive traction and braking forces, provide insight into track damage prevention and focus on the development of proper maintenance strategies.”
The project is expected to take place over the next three-and-a-half years, and has been funded by the Australasian Centre for Rail Innovation (ACRI).
Spiryagin’s project team includes chief investigators Professor Peter Wolfs, Professor Colin Cole, Dr Nirmal Mandal and Dr Yan Quan Sun.
In addition, the project team will be joined by Dr Qing Wu, who is a recent graduate of a PhD program at CQUniversity, in the role of postdoctoral researcher.