Tamping and Renewal Optimization of Ballasted Track Using Track Measurement Data and Genetic Algorithm

Abstract

Although reliability centered maintenance (RCM) has been used widely in the maintenance and renewal (M&R) of railway infrastructures, M&R methods and maintenance frequencies still require considerable study to obtain information on optimum decisions. Recently, various attempts have been made to optimize the maintenance works in railway engineering, although a decision support system on selecting the maintenance or renewal works has not been suggested distinctly. Therefore, a genetic algorithm on the basis of the nondominated sorting method (NSGA) was used in this study to optimize the biobjective functions on M&R interventions and costs. The results showed that the optimum frequency of M&R could be determined using the NSGA method with various constraints. Moreover, field application of the suggested method also was considered. Future work will be concentrated on the systematic approach of the decision support model with RCM and the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system of the infrastructure manager (IM).