Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SMaRT (Sand Mitigation around Railway Tracks)

Teaser

SMaRT (Sand Mitigation around Railway Tracks) is a four year project coordinated by Politecnico di Torino and supported by the EC through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action. It provides an innovative, multidisciplinary and inter-sectorial doctoral training in prestigious...

Summary

SMaRT (Sand Mitigation around Railway Tracks) is a four year project coordinated by Politecnico di Torino and supported by the EC through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action. It provides an innovative, multidisciplinary and inter-sectorial doctoral training in prestigious academic institutions (Politecnico di Torino – Italy, and University of Oxford – UK) as well as a highly skilled Consulting Company (Optiflow Company – France), and supported by a panel of global players in the railway industry as Partner Organizations, ranging from civil works (Astaldi), to railway equipment (Salcef), to signalling systems (Ansaldo STS). SMaRT promotes international excellence in sand mitigation science and technology, in modelling, design, assessment and commercialization of innovative and efficient Sand Mitigation Measures.

In the last decade, a growing number of railways have been designed or built in arid regions worldwide mainly to transport pilgrims and freight. Transnational railway networks are even more ambitious, intended to promote the social and geopolitical growth of large Regions. For instance, the Arab Network Railway is a 30,000 km long high-speed/ capacity railway network currently under design connecting all the Arab League Countries. The length of such a single project is more than twice the overall European high-speed railway network. The corresponding investments are significant. For instance, Middle East Countries allocated USD 259 billion to build 40,000 km of railway tracks up to 2030.

In arid environments, windblown sand can have relevant negative impacts on railway infrastructures in terms of safety and serviceability issues related to dunes migrating onto the track, windblown loose sand accumulating on the railway, trapping of stationary trains, and derailment of running trains. Windblown sand reduces railway serviceability and increases maintenance costs because of ballast contamination, rail grinding and wheel profiling, and burial of signal controls.

Effective, durable, robust and sustainable solutions are mandatory to protect railways against windblown sand. Such solutions are usually named Sand Mitigation Measures (SMMs). The design and verification of SMMs are at their infancy worldwide and they currently remain in the realm of empiric, qualitative practice. Such an approach obviously conflicts with modern engineering practice, based on the quantification of the design solutions by means of predictive models. SMMs suffer from the scarce transfer of knowledge from research fields (e.g. Fluid and Porous Mechanics, Wind Engineering, Geomorphology) to Civil Engineering design practice and construction industry.

The European industry has a strong know-how thanks to its experience in the construction of the European high-speed railway network. Nevertheless, the transfer of such competences to constructions in arid environments requires specialized knowledge in the design and analysis of SMMs.

To face these problems and industrial opportunities, SMaRT aims to:
• Innovate the sand mitigation research field, by advancing competences in the main scientific fields involved (wind engineering and structural design, mechanics of fluid and granular media, aeolian geomorphology), and their convergence in a multidisciplinary approach for design and analysis;
• Innovate the training of ESRs by means of:
- a multidisciplinary doctoral training programme incorporating the development of both design capabilities and analysis skills;
- an academy-industry intersectoral doctoral framework integrating the innovation ability of the former and the stimuli stemming from the industrial and commercial needs of the latter;
- a proper “in vitro” replica of the ESRs’ future real world working context, by a consortium layout that reflects the production chain of the construction industry;
• Enrich and complement the competences of the European railway industry, in order to address an exciting and growing

Work performed

The research activities carried out within SMaRT develop along three main axes.

• PoliTo team, jointly with Optiflow and with the support of Astaldi, develops a COMPUTATIONAL-BASED DESIGN OF INNOVATIVE SAND MITIGATION MEASURES, fuelled by:
- the categorization of the windblown sand-induced hazards on railway and its components that SMMs are asked to solve;
- the deep understanding of the working principles of SMMs, notably the way they affect the wind and sand flow;
- the rigorous optimization procedures intended to maximise the SMM performance and to minimize its construction and maintenance costs.

• At Optiflow, together with PoliTo mathematicians, PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL MODELS OF WINDBLOWN SAND PHENOMENA are developed, addressed to:
- the translation of complex phenomena emerging from interacting multiphase wind-sand dynamics in mathematical equations;
- the development of robust and accurate computational simulations techniques and software to be applied in industrial context to real world problems;
- the performance assessment of SMMs;

• Oxford geographers, with the support of Optiflow computer systems, provide the IN-SITU ASSESSMENT OF SAND HAZARDS FROM THE LANDSCAPE SCALE TO THE RAILWAY SCALE by:
- desk-based analyses of meteorological historical records and remote sensing imagery;
- in-situ measurements of wind velocity, sand concentration in air, sedimented sand thickness and forms, sand inclusion in ballast by means of sophisticated equipment, e.g. sonic anemometers, terrestrial laser scanners, ground penetrating radars;
- developing standard procedures and competences for operational design, evaluation and field testing of SMMs.

The SMaRT fellows’ training program covers all theoretical and technical aspects related to Windblown Sand and SMMs. A series of overlapping components contribute to achieve this aim: Research training provided by the expert project supervisors, Specialised PhD courses; Industrial technical courses, Transferable skill courses, Secondments of researchers to industrial partners and along desert railways.

Last but no least, SMaRT pays a constant attention to public communication, scientific dissemination, and industrial exploitation of the obtained results in the European Railway Industry and in railway projects beyond Europe.

Final results

All the research activities carried out in SMaRT have strong potential for excellent research and technological development, and for converting the results into industrial and economic benefits. The production and characterisation of novel design solutions for railway applications is performed together with the development of the appropriate cost-effective, cost-competitive and innovative methodologies.

Additionally, this project directly aims at training highly skilled researchers who are at ease in both industrial and academic environments, thanks to a strong and effective industry-academia cooperation and collaboration, thus bridging the gap between the academic and commercial research sectors.

Knowledge transfer from SMaRT to different audience is carried out by differentiating mind attitude, used language and media. The SMaRT Client Colloquia organized at the SMaRT stand within the Middle East Rail show for innovation, technology and strategy on February 2019 in Dubai will be the opportunity to disseminate SMaRT innovative methods and technologies to stakeholders, policy makes, industries and general contractors.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.smart-eid.eu.