Optimization of maintenance strategies for railway track-bed considering probabilistic degradation models and different reliability levels

Sara Bressi, Santos, João and Massimo Losa

Reliability Engineering and System Safety, 2021, vol. 207, issue C

Abstract: An optimization-based maintenance scheduling framework is an essential tool to plan the necessary investment to maintain the required performance of a railway line. In the present study, a methodology is proposed to minimize the present value of the life cycle maintenance costs and maximize the life cycle quality level of the track-bed considering different levels of reliability. Probabilistic degradation models are developed for predicting the evolution of the railway track condition over time. Afterwards, a Genetic Algorithm based optimization procedure is applied for obtaining a set of optimal solutions taking into account several constrains. The proposed methodology is applied to an Italian railway track-line case study. The results show that it is possible to develop a decision support system to help railway managers to schedule railway track maintenance operations based on the optimal trade-off between maintenance costs and railway track geometry condition for different levels of reliability.

Keywords: Track management system; Markov chain; Genetic algorithm; Multi-objective optimization; Railway; Maintenance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0951832020308498
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reensy:v:207:y:2021:i:c:s0951832020308498

DOI: 10.1016/j.ress.2020.107359

Access Statistics for this article

Reliability Engineering and System Safety is currently edited by Carlos Guedes Soares

More articles in Reliability Engineering and System Safety from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().