Hållbar förvaltning av järnvägar (CHARMEC SP32)

Forskningsprojekt, 2021

In transport systems where vehicles are highly utilized and have a long operational life, maintenance and (re-)investments are core issues. This is currently the situation for rail (and air and ship) transports, but as the concept of Mobility as a Service expands, it will have increased relevance also for road transports. From a sustainability perspective this is a very welcome transition since it (if carried out properly) reduces the environmental footprint of the vehicle fleets considerably.

For efficient management of transport systems where maintenance is an important part, asset management is a key challenge. From a technical perspective (which this proposal addresses), it relates to a knowledge of the current and future status of the fleet. With the aid of condition monitoring, the potential for this have increased, as assessed and improved in the ongoing AoA initiative “Intelligent railway digitization”. The current project proposal takes this a step further by investigating how condition monitoring data can be employed in asset management decisions on investments and maintenance. In extension to current initiatives in the railway sector, the project does not only investigate the possibility to provide data e.g. for net present value analyses, but also to estimate uncertainties related to these values (that is, the uncertainties in the technical basis for the asset management decisions). It will also investigate where the highest uncertainties are, i.e. which operational data and predictive model assumptions have the most influence on uncertainties in asset management decisions.

With the introduction of the international standard ISO 55000, asset management systems are becoming mandatory in many areas. We believe that the current proposal can give Chalmers a head start in these areas. It will also be an important support to on-going and future European projects, especially in our input (with Trafikverket) for the upcoming proposal for a Joint Technology Initiative in Horizon Europe.