CQUniversity's leadership on innovation for 'heavy haul' railway systems means there is plenty of potential for collaboration with Chinese research teams working in this field.

That's according to Professor Colin Cole, Director of CQUniversity's Centre for Railway Engineering (CRE), who recently visited Nanjing for the 4th International Symposium For Railroad Universities in Europe and Asia. Delegates from 14 'railway universities' included representatives from Nanjing Institute of Railway Technology and Dalian Jiatong University, as well as their counterparts from Russia, the Republic of Korea, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. CQUniversity was the only Australian institution involved.

Professor Colin Cole (second from right) views the High Speed Train at Shanghai during his recent visit to China

Professor Cole said the priority areas for collaboration included locomotive traction, train dynamics, wagon dynamics and contact mechanics, within 'heavy haul' systems. The rail research leader was also able to spend three days at Dalian Jiatong University, China, late in 2010, discussing research on the dynamics of long heavy haul trains.

He said CQUniversity was talking to Chinese academics to design shared education delivery models for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in railway engineering.

There is ongoing discussion and collaboration with researchers at China's Dalian Jiatong University, in particular.

"We see emerging opportunities for collaboration on student exchange, student recruitment, joint research and development of formally-linked education offerings," Professor Cole said.

The Australian research leader says incremental changes can save millions of dollars for railway systems, thanks to researchers squeezing out every possible performance enhancement. Sometimes tiny adjustments are enough when translated to hundreds of trains and thousands of kilometres of rail lines.

Professor Cole during his visit to Dalian Transport University

CQUniversity's CRE already boasts research partnerships with railway owners and peak bodies across Australia and it is also developing relationships overseas.

CRE researchers may be keeping an eye on their Intelligent Train Monitor prototype testing but their innovative vision is also extending in many other directions.

"Recently we've have had further projects approved in the human factors area including work on platform gaps, work on monitoring the safety of railway level crossings using video and work on what we call high-risk level crossing users. These projects are in their seed grant stage and could proceed into much larger projects this year," Professor Cole said.

"Also on safety we are completing simulation studies of trains in crash scenarios for a revision of the Australian rollingstock crash worthiness standards.

 "For 2011 we also have new projects approved in technologies for track worker protection, new work on locomotive adhesion and also a large project on the lifecycle management and maintenance of rail bridges."

Professor Colin Cole

CRE specialists are taking on the challenge to develop new low-cost level crossing technologies that offer equivalent or improved safety. The latest rail crossing project includes academics and students and both the engineering and human factors disciplines, since reduction of human error is a prime goal. The second stage to this project has been approved and is receiving good support from both rail owners and manufacturers..

Industry partners in the ‘curve lubrication' project have been eyeing big benefits from reduction in wheel wear, noise and energy usage, if the best combination of lubricants and applicators can be found to literally grease the wheels of commerce.

The heat is also on the track stability management team to help operators use weather prediction data to avert problems caused by thermal expansion and contraction. Weather forecasts coupled with likely incident predictions should help rail owners manage train operations in advance. Stage 1 of the project has now been completed and it investigated a practical combination of methods to manage track buckling risks and speed restriction settings. There is now a project proposal to develop the modelling outcomes into prototype software and the ideas are being explored to extend this approach to other extreme weather, high winds and floods.What of the future? Well, CQUniversity researchers are now becoming futurists, looking at entirely new engine systems, possibly even hybrids, to drive the rail industry further into our ‘carbon-concious' century. Existing and future technologies are being evaluated in current projects.

Much of the technology jumping off drawing boards could under-perform if a crucial component is overlooked -  the operators.

Professor Colin Cole welcomes visitors to his laboratory on Rockhampton Campus

With this in mind, CQUniversity is involving specialists in human interaction with equipment.  Often, potentially beneficial and expensive technologies are rejected by the users or unexpectedly make things worse.

An example is the need for new locomotive cabin and control panel layouts  to ‘make sense' when drivers need to use them.

Technologies such as the Intelligent Train Monitor are expected to be in increased demand as train sizes in Australia grow to 50,000 tonnes and over 3km long.

Meanwhile, another research project is well advanced developing a Train Health Advisory System to monitor and detect things like flat wheels, strange wagon behaviours, derailments and track irregularities. Hardware is currently being delivered for the first proof-of-concept system.

The multi-partner project will involve proof-of-concept testing of cost-effective wagon monitoring systems that have the potential to revolutionise the way rolling stock is managed and maintained.

In another big laboratory-based project, full-scale destructive testing of rail joints will be completed this year.The laboratory testing will start in June.

Sensors at track level can provide crucial data

Professor Cole and his fellow CRE researchers Dr Yan Sun and Mitchell McClanachan have found their study of wheel impact has made a real impact on a global level.Their article on the calculation of wheel impact force due to the interaction between vehicle and a turnout (track change) was the 'top downloaded article' among all those published last year in the London-based Journal of Rail and Rapid Transit.

Published by SAGE Publications Ltd, this journal is part of the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Professor Cole said the JRRT is an A-ranked journal recognised as one of the best railway specific journals in the world.

"It also shows that ‘industry-selected research' drives research that is of great interest," he said.

"This work was derived from the CRC for Rail Innovation Project on Short Pitch Irregularities chaired by Malcolm Kerr from RailCorp."

Professor Cole said that operation of trains through turnouts, that is, when it is necessary for trains to change tracks, always leads to some impacts as wheels switch from one rail to another.

A rail researcher works with a test rig, exerting tilting and rotating forces on a rail wagon and track segment to mimic the forces on the bogie (wheels and wagon supports) caused by curves in the track

"The impacts, in turn, lead to track degradation requiring maintenance. It is important to understand how to prioritise maintenance to ensure train safety and apply maintenance to the most damaging faults first to reduce costs," he said.

CQUniversity's CRE is part of the Institute for Resource Industries and Sustainability, which also acts as an umbrella for Centres involved with Environmental Management, Plant and Water Science, Intelligent and Networked Systems, and Process Engineering and Light Metals. The University is also focused on Education Research and Health and Social Science Research.

Details about CQUniversity's research are available via www.cqu.edu.au/research