Reliability, Availability and Maintainability Study of a Light Rail Transit System

The TFG title mentioned consists on a RAM Study of a Light Rail Transit (LRT) System. Its aim lies in achieving a defined level of service in a given time, by demonstrating quantitatively and qualitatively the availability of the system. The Quality of the Service has to be guaranteed by the application of engineering concepts, methods, techniques and tools, such as ITEM Toolkit.    This study is a first approach to the Preliminary Engineering Analysis of a Light Rail Transit (LRT) System. The study is divided into four interrelated parts. The first one consists on a presentation of the RAM Discipline, by a development of its theoretical foundations and the four Key Performance Indicators used through all the study. The methodology employed during the analysis and actual methods used for RAM analysis are also described in this section. Then, it has been developed a Failure Mode and Effects Criticality Analysis (FMECA) with a subsequent Sensitive Analysis to ensure that the results are binary in terms of probability. With that, a consequent Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) has been carried out. After that, the third part of the study provides the LRT RAM Requirements Apportionment and last, but not least, Preventive/Corrective Actions have been proposed

Estimating Workforce Development Needs for High-Speed Rail in California, Research Report 11-16

This study provides an assessment of the job creation and attendant education and training needs associated with the creation of the California High-Speed Rail (CHSR) network, scheduled to begin construction in September 2012. Given the high profile of national and state commitment to the project, a comprehensive analysis that discusses the education, training, and related needs created during the build out of the CHSR network is necessary. This needs assessment is achieved by means of: 1) analyzing current high-speed rail specific challenges pertaining to 220mph trains; 2) using a more accurate and robust “bottom-up” approach to estimate the labor, education, skills, and knowledge needed to complete the CHSR network; and 3) assessing the current capacity of railroad-specific training and education in the state of California and the nation. Through these analyses, the study identifies the magnitude and attributes of the workforce development needs and challenges that lie ahead for California. The results of this research offer new insight into the training and education levels likely to be needed for the emergent high-speed rail workforce, including which types of workers and professionals are needed over the life of the project (by project phase), and their anticipated educational level. Results indicates that although the education attained by the design engineers of the system signifies the most advanced levels of education in the workforce, this group is comparatively small over the life of the project. Secondly, this report identifies vast training needs for the construction workforce and higher education needs for a managerial construction workforce. Finally, the report identifies an extremely limited existing capacity for training and educating the high-speed rail workforce in both California and in the U.S. generally

On the safety design of radar based railway level crossing surveillance systems

Recent accidents experienced at railway level crossings are pushing researchers to design surveillance systems able to grant safety of passengers and structural integrity of trains at level crossings. The challenge is represented by granting at the same time an appropriate reliability, availability and maintainability degree despite the high safety requirements imposed by the application. The approach proposed in this paper takes into consideration the most common suggested standards used in designing this kind of systems and introduces new general concepts which demystify the use of such standards in actual applications. This paper illustrates the roadmap to be followed in general when designing level crossing monitoring systems, to minimize the risk due to object misdetection occurring on barrier closure when exploiting radar technology

component testing

Este relatório/dissertação foi desenvolvido no âmbito do Curso de Mestrado em Engenharia Eletrotécnica, e para a Unidade Curricular de Estágio, e representa o trabalho desenvolvido na empresa Critical Software, no âmbito do projeto interno Railway Embedded Software Validation na área de Component Testing. No projeto em que está envolvido este estágio, visa-se testar componentes do sistema de controlo do comboio (Luzes, Travagem, ...), ou seja, testar se uma das partes dos componentes está a funcionar dentro dos parâmetros exigidos e/ou estabelecidos. Para isso foi necessário passar por um processo de aprendizagem com várias etapas, entre as quais se podem destacar: - como funcionam os comboios; - como são aplicadas as normas; - como são descritos os requisitos necessários para que os comboios funcionem dentro dos parâmetros de segurança. Com isso em perspetiva, foram realizadas atividades de verificação formal, com objetivo fazer a especificação e desenvolvimento dos diversos níveis de teste o sistema. Alguns dos sistemas estudados foram de tração, sistema de travagem, controlos do motorista e de diagnóstico

Research on the System Safety Management in Urban Railway

Nowadays, rail transport has become one of the most widely utilised forms of transport thanks to its high safety level, large capacity, and cost-effectiveness. With the railway network's continuous development, including urban rail transit, one of the major areas of increasing attention and demand is ensuring safety or risk management in operation long-term remains for the whole life cycle by scientific tools, management of railway operation (Martani 2017), specifically in developed and developing countries like Vietnam. The situation in Vietnam demonstrates that the national mainline railway network has been built and operated entirely in a single narrow gauge (1000mm) since the previous century, with very few updates of manual operating technology. This significantly highlights that up to now, the conventional technique for managing the safety operation in general, and collision in particular, of the current Vietnamese railway system, including its subsystems, is only accident statistics which is not a scientific-based tool as the others like risk identify and analyse methods, risk mitigation…, that are already available in many countries. Accident management of Vietnam Railways is limited and responsible for accident statistics analysis to avoid and minimise the harm caused by phenomena that occur only after an accident. Statistical analysis of train accident case studies in Vietnam railway demonstrates that, because hazards and failures that could result in serious system occurrences (accidents and incidents) have not been identified, recorded, and evaluated to conduct safety-driven risk analysis using a well-suited assessment methodology, risk prevention and control cannot be achieved. Not only is it hard to forecast and avoid events, but it may also raise the chance and amount of danger, as well as the severity of the later effects. As a result, Vietnam's railway system has a high number of accidents and failure rates. For example, Vietnam Rail-ways' mainline network accounted for approximately 200 railway accidents in 2018, a 3% increase over the previous year, including 163 collisions between trains and road vehicles/persons, resulting in more than 100 fatalities and more than 150 casualties; 16 accidents, including almost derailments, the signal passed at danger… without fatality or casual-ty, but significant damage to rolling stock and track infrastructure (VR 2021). Focusing and developing a new standardised framework for safety management and availability of railway operation in Vietnam is required in view of the rapid development of rail urban transport in the country in recent years (VmoT 2016; VmoT 2018). UMRT Line HN2A in southwest Hanoi is the country's first elevated light rail transit line, which was completed and officially put into revenue service in November 2021. This greatly highlights that up to the current date, the UMRT Line HN2A is the first and only railway line in Vietnam with operational safety assessment launched for the first time and long-term remains for the whole life cycle. The fact that the UMRT Hanoi has a large capacity, more complicated rolling stock and infrastructure equipment, as well as a modern communica-tion-based train control (CBTC) signalling system and automatic train driving without the need for operator intervention (Lindqvist 2006), are all advantages. Developing a compatible and integrated safety management system (SMS) for adaption to the safety operating requirements of this UMRT is an important major point of concern, and this should be proven. In actuality, the system acceptance and safety certification phase for Metro Line HN2A prolonged up to 2.5 years owing to the identification of difficulties with noncompliance to safety requirements resulting from inadequate SMS documents and risk assessment. These faults and hazards have developed during the manufacturing and execution of the project; it is impossible to go back in time to correct them, and it is also impossible to ignore the project without assuming responsibility for its management. At the time of completion, the HN2A metro line will have required an expenditure of up to $868 million, thus it is vital to create measures to prevent system failure and assure passenger safety. This dissertation has reviewed the methods to solve the aforementioned challenges and presented a solution blueprint to attain the European standard level of system safety in three-phase as in the following: • Phase 1: applicable for lines that are currently in operation, such as Metro Line HN2A. Focused on operational and maintenance procedures, as well as a training plan for railway personnel, in order to enhance human performance. Complete and update the risk assessment framework for Metro Line HN2A. The dissertation's findings are described in these applications. • Phase 2: applicable for lines that are currently in construction and manufacturing, such as Metro Line HN3, Line HN2, HCMC Line 1 and Line 2. Continue refining and enhancing engineering management methods introduced during Phase 1. On the basis of the risk assessment by manufacturers (Line HN3, HCMC Line 2 with European manufacturers) and the risk assessment framework described in Chapter 4, a risk management plan for each line will be developed. Building Accident database for risk assessment research and development. • Phase 3: applicable for lines that are currently in planning. Enhance safety requirements and life-cycle management. Building a proactive Safety Culture step by step for the railway industry. This material is implemented gradually throughout all three phases, beginning with the creation of the concept and concluding with an improvement in the attitude of railway personnel on the HN2A line. In addition to this overview, Chapters 4 through Chapter 9 of the dissertation include particular solutions for Risk assessment, Vehicle and Infrastructure Maintenance methods, Inci-dent Management procedures, and Safety Culture installation. This document focuses on constructing a system safety concept for railway personnel, providing stringent and scientific management practises to assure proper engineering conditions, to manage effectively the metro line system, and ensuring passenger safety in Hanoi's metro operatio