Reliability Analysis of Switches and Crossings A Case Study in Swedish Railway

Behzad Ghodrati, Alireza Ahmadi, Diego Galar Division of Operation and Maintenance Engineering Lule University of Technology, Sweden

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Introduction
Railway complexity:

Mix of components with different age Working together

Minimize maintenance time

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Higher Increase Maintenance be performed near capacity limits utilization traffic Time between asset renewals be long enough of capacity volume Minimize unplanned interruption

Introduction
The key goal is to achieve availability target cost effectively.

Availability
Reliability Maintainability Supportability

To conduct reliability analysis:

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Detail failure and maintenance recorded data Detail maintenance action done Mission profile: duty cycle and environmental characteristics

RAMS
Reliability: Ability of an item to perform a required function under given conditions for a given time interval.

R(t ) e

RAMS
perform a required function under given conditions at a given instant of time or during a given time interval, assuming that the required external resources are provided.

Availability: Ability of an item to be in a state to safety) (reliability, availability, maintainability and

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Total time Times of repair Total time

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Switches
A railroad switch, turnout or set of points is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another at a railway junction.

Name of switche in Swedish railway system: A-B-C-D (e.g. EV SJ50 11 1:9), A: type of switch (single, double)Check rail B: type of railpanel
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C: radius or length of switch blade D: type of angle

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Switch and Crossing Elements

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Ballast Check rail Cross over panel Crossing Fasteners Heating system Locking device Rail Rail joint (mostly protected rail joint) Sleeper (bearer) Snow protection Switch blade Switch blade position detector Switch device (motor, gearbox, coupling, bars, etc.)
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Sweden railway network

BODEN

NGE

GVLE HALLSBERG STOCKHOLM

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NORRKPING GTEBORG

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MALM

Data collection and evolution

Raw Data 43528 failures

Number of registered failures Jan. 2005 Dec. 2009

Age and location of turnouts

Switches with numbers inferior to 50 was eliminated

Installation date known

Raw data without unnecessary types of turnouts 42221 failures

Installation date unknown

Turnouts known

Turnouts unkown

Turnouts known

Turnouts unkwown

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- Changed between 05/09: -in BESSY (1452 failures) -not in BESSY - Not changed -installation date 0" (2004 failures) -the rest (25006 failures)

- In BESSY (30 failures) - Not in BESSY

- Changed between 05/09: -in BESSY (31 failures) -not in BESSY - Not changed -installation date 0" (176 failures) -the rest (977 failures) - #N/A

- Unkwown (10477 failures)

29676 failures

Final available data

10477 failures
24% 68% 8%

Turnouts unkown
Data not found in the different files Data available for study

29676 failures

3375 failures

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Take into account the 10 types of turnouts generating most failures and 60 tracks of interest

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16627 failures
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Studied tracks and switches

9 (out of 60) focused tracks
Track number 124 410 414 420 512 611 811 813 912

Type of track Freight track

Commuter trians and some freight Mixed passenger and freight

Mixed passenger and freight

Mixed passenger and freight Mixed passenger and freight Mixed passenger and freight Mixed passenger and freight Mixed passenger and freight

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Tracks with more failures with at least 10 individuals asset names and at least 2 types of turnouts
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10 types of turnouts generating more failures

EV-SJ50-11-1:9 EV-UIC60-760-1:15 EV-SJ50-12-1:15 DKV-SJ50- EV-UIC60-300-1:9 EV-UIC60-1200-1:18,5 EV-UIC60-1200- EV-UIC60-760-1:14 EV-SJ50-12-1:13

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5301 4291 3224 2997 2890 1745 1214 867 Number of failures

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EV-SJ50-12-1:12 641 EV-SJ50-11-1:9 EV-SJ50-12-1:15 EV-SJ50-11 0 2000 4000 6000 EV-UIC60-1200-1:18,5 EV-SJ50-12 EV-UIC60-1200-1:18,5 EV-UIC60-300 BL33 EV-UIC60-300-1:9 EV-UIC60-760 EV-UIC60-760-1:14 EV-UIC60-1200 EV-UIC60-760-1:15

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Data classification
Dividing into 2 seasons COLD from November to March (5 months) HOT from April to October (7 months)
Proportion of failures by season

45% 55%

Cold Hot

Dividing into 2 types of tracks

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nhsp main track ahsp diverging track

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Subsystems affected by failures Hot period

Switch blade position detector (blank) 2057 1616 710 120 109 98 79 62 47 31 13 10 7 3 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 13 2520

Switch device (motor, gearbox,

Switch blade Heating system Rail joint (mostly insulated rail joint) Fasteners Crossing Locking device Snow protection Rail
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Hot

Sleeper (bearer) Ballast Check rail Cross over panel

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Subsystems affected by failures Cold period

(blank) Switch blade position detector 2765 2521 1474 1194 624 105 80 79 66 57 36 10 8 7 4 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 14

Switch device (motor, gearbox,

Heating system Switch blade Snow protection Rail joint (mostly insulated rail joint) Crossing Fasteners Locking device Rail
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Cold

Check rail Ballast Sleeper (bearer) Cross over panel

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Comparison of subsystems with more failures during the two seasons

Switch blade position detector (blank) Switch device (motor, gearbox, coupling, bars, ...) Switch blade
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2520 2521 2057 2765 1616 1474 710 624 120 HOT COLD

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Heating system 0

1194
1000 2000 3000
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Data analysis tool

RDAT (Reliability Data Analysis Tool) software was developed by Alstom and the University of Bordeaux (France), and deal with highly censored field data which wasnt taken into account properly with the already existing programs. RDAT was used to estimate the reliability functions and failure rates from field data Four failure models have been implemented in RDAT: exponential, Weibull, normal, and lognormal distributions.

To select the best model, a goodness-of-fit test is applied.

The maintenance quality is considered by a parameter denoted Rho:

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= 1 means that the maintenance quality is AGAN (the maintenance operation is perfect).
= 0 means that the maintenance quality is ABAO (the mission can continue but leaves the item with a reliability corresponding to the age accumulated so far).

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RDAT software methodology

Work on First Failure

Maintenance effect analysis POSSIBLE

No

Is Exponential best Estimator?

Yes

Maintenance effect analysis NOT POSSIBLE

Kijima

Rho = 0

0 < Rho < 1

Rho = 1

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Work on ABAO

Work on First Failure

Work on AGAN

Work on First Failure

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Intrinsic Reliability Analysis

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Data analysis RDAT software output

70% of cases =1

AGAN maintenance

30% of cases, = 0,5-1

ABAO maintenance

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Trafikverket (Swedish Railway Administration) maintenance experts consulting: ABAO model was considered
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Data analysis RDAT software output

Instantaneous failure rate
failure rate shape parameter
n T

n n ln T ln Ti
i 1 n

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Instantaneous Mean Time Between Failures

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RDAT implementation and results

Growth factor Beta as a function of types of turnout and season and type of track

< 1 MTBF

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Maybe the maintenance has improved in these 5 years (Case of infant mortality: many problems at the beginning) The organisation learned how to deal with failures during 05/09 Other possible explanation:
For SJ50-11 switch point detectors taken out (less failures) Change of switch point detectors on the other types of turnouts (from mechanical to electrical) > reduces number of failures in Hot and Cold

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RDAT implementation and results

Growth factor Beta as a function of types of turnout and season and type of track

> 1 MTBF
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Old equipment fails more > Maintenance is not compensating the age of the turnout

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RDAT implementation and results

Comparison between hot/cold
There are much more < 1 during COLD season, better maintenance? More effective maintenance during winter time?
There are much more > 1 during HOT season, worst maintenance?

Is there any link with the number of failures avery year?

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Comparison between hot/cold

There is no relationship
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between the number of failures every year and the improved or not of the maintenance for these years.
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and Maintenance

RDAT results
Values of and for different types of turnouts for the 9 tracks

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Example for tracks 124, 410 and 912 for main track and SJ50-11
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RDAT results

Example for tracks 124, 410 and 912 for main track and SJ50-11

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RDAT results

Instantaneous failure rate (SJ50-11 and nhspcold)

0.0004 0.00035

Failure rate ()

0.0003 0.00025

0.0002
0.00015 0.0001 0.00005 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60

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124 410 912

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Months (from January 05 to December 09)

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RDAT results

Instantaneous failure rate (SJ50-11 and nhsp-hot)

0.0004 0.00035

Failure rate ()

0.0003 0.00025

0.0002
0.00015 0.0001 0.00005 0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48 51 54 57 60

124 410 912

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Months (from January 05 to December 09)

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Availability

Turnouts are in serie in a track

Turnout 1 Turnout 2

Turnout 3

Turnout 4

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Conclusion
The RAMS analysis confirms the more failure in Cold season than in Hot season For tracks 124, 410 and 912

Failure rate decreasing during Cold season

Failure rate almost constant during Hot season

Track 512, which has the lowest availability, needs to be focused for improvement
The RDAT software is not taking into account this parameter. However, it is possible to do a covariate analysis including this factor. On the most important failure contributors, which are the switch blade position detectors, switch devices, heating system in the cold season, and switch blades
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