UK: A digital twin simulation method has been developed to test a concept for a new design of turnout.
The method combines finite element analysis for rail bending and motion, with physics-based models of the electromechanical actuator and control systems, to enable researchers to understand dynamic operation before the turnout is built.
It is being used to develop the Repoint concept for a turnout which uses a ‘lift and move’ stub switch rather than the conventional sliding pair of tapering rails.
Repoint was developed by Professor Roger Dixon, who led a team at Loughborough University until 2018, and is now Professor of Control Systems Engineering at the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research & Education.
A digital twin developed by the team now at the universities of Birmingham, Leeds and Loughborough and Network Rail has been used to show that the design exceeds requirements for speed and performance.
Scenarios included power failure to four of the six motors that drive the actuators, and showed that a single actuator is capable lifting and moving the points to the desired position.
‘Although switches account for less than 5% of railway track miles, they contribute to 18% of delay minutes, and 17·5% of delay costs in the UK’, said Dixon.
The researchers are now seeking partners and funding to fully test the overall system, including the actuators, permanent way and interfaces to signalling.