PROJECTS

SCOPE

The railway market is now considered the most economical and sustainable way to travel. However, urban growth maintains the growth forecast on the rise over the next ten years and the need for additional mobility support point to a safe railway growth, even in the difficult and saturated European market.
In fact, the need to address the mobility of the future – megacities, journeys to work at ever greater distances, environmental impact – poses important challenges for railway line operators, who, as an important part of the solution, must seek to develop solutions that stimulate sustainable mobility. These requirements are in-line with the European Strategic Agenda for the Rail Sector 2020, promoted by the European Rail Research Advisory Council (ERRAC), which naturally transposes to manufacturers of rolling equipment (OEM such as Alstom, Siemens, Bombardier, ...) the responsibility of Research and Innovation of progressively more advanced and efficient solutions, which ensure, among several aspects, an increasing level of safety and reliability, increased resource efficiency, high availability of means (train) and passengers satisfied with the level of comfort of the journey.
All these aspects involve redesigning the current equipment and, in particular, the interior of the carriages. In fact, recent studies show that the most important thing for passengers is that the carriage has clean and comfortable interiors, and a reasonably priced but punctual service.
Within the various systems that integrate the railway interiors, the pavement system is one of the systems with the greatest impact on the safety and comfort of the passenger and on the weight (mass) of all interior systems. It is also one of the systems that takes longer to install on the train, thus having a strong impact on manufacturing costs. This project is thus born from this growing need for the integration into the rail pavement component of new features, in addition to the obvious structural and safety, which add greater value to it and that meet the different needs of the rail public transport sector.

MAIN OBJECTIVES

• Acquire technical and specific know-how in the use of composite materials, 
  multi-material components and construction and assembly techniques of greater complexity;
• Explore new materials for train decks, which allow to maximise and optimise their functionalities (optimising the relationships sound insulation / thermal insulation / vibration insulation / surface weight reduction);
• Develop, according to the requirements and needs outlined by the project, core materials (for sandwich panels) that are natural and / or recyclable, based on cork granules;
• Develop a substantially improved rail flooring system in its design and assembly procedures on the OEM line, reducing the lead-time of carriage manufacturing from 3 to 2 days;
• Study and develop an intelligent floor heating system that simultaneously does not add assembly complexity to the OEM or cost to the total price of the solution;
• Study the impact of different climatic zones on the resistance of current floor systems and design solutions adjustable to different climates;
• Develop manufacturing systems suitable for the assembly of a modular and multifunctional railway floor, in order to control and monitor the process at the level of its main parameters;
• Develop dynamic test systems tailored to the specificities of the railway market and the test standards applicable to construction solutions;
• Study and develop a sensor system complementary to the heating system, which allows to obtain operational information relevant to the operator (data management) and that is adaptable and evolutionary.

PROJECT ACTIVITIES AND EXPECTED RESULTS

Preliminary studies, where the technical and functional requirements of the target study object will be thoroughly characterised and studied compared to competing solutions; and where the test plan and validation criteria will be defined;

New construction solutions and associated processes, where the best combinations of panel materials (with development of a new core material using cork) will be studied and an extensive characterisation of the most promising options, including a simple structural analysis. This activity will also design the active multifunctional systems and the production and assembly systems of the pavement will be made. The analysis of the technical and economic feasibility of the solutions will monitor the implementation of the entire activity, in order to ensure the projection of manufacturing costs of the elements and combinations under development.

Product development, in this activity we will seek to study the interfaces of the pavement in the carriage and define the final details of the product and assembly sequences; the product will be modelled in 3D CAD and a detailed structural analysis (CAE) will be made. This activity will also perform the hygro-thermal analysis to the pavement, in order to evaluate its performance in the various climatic zones worldwide; the multifunctional systems will be developed in this activity in coordination with the final design of the product.

Manufacture of prototypes and demonstrators, where the drawings will be detailed to start the manufacture of the manufacture and assembly systems of the floor. The multifunctional system will also be produced here, which will be integrated into the floor. This activity will manufacture a small demonstrator (2 or 3 m2) that will serve to validate the developments made (and whose results will be the subject of presentation in specialised fair), as well as to start the final phase of this activity, which will be dedicated to the experimental production of modular and multifunctional flooring on a full scale.

Verification and Validation Tests, where initially the design and development of the special test system (fatigue tests) necessary for the testing tasks will be carried out and the final solution of the pavement will be tested in all its aspects and according to the list of requirements and test methods initially defined.

MAIN RESULTS ACHIEVED

The outcome of the project is clearly positive, with all tasks and activities assumed as completed. COMMUTE produced all the deliverables foreseen and the milestones took place generically according to the forecast, effectively representing important milestones in the project's advancement. It is also important to note that the project produced a patent, submitted in November 2017, on the active multifunctional system and its integration into structural composite panels. The submission of a utility model related to the fixation system that was developed under the project was also considered, but a preliminary evaluation showed that, although possible to approve, the final protection would always be greatly reduced and we chose not to execute it, evaluating the cost/benefit ratio.

In terms of the objectives that COMMUTE has set out to achieve, the assessment is very positive and it is considered that all of them have been achieved, as presented at the closing session of 16th March 2017. The following list shows the main results achieved:

• Weight, market situation - 13-15 kg/m2, project result - 12.4 kg/m2;
• Smaller number of components per carriage, market situation - 18 panels, design result - 6 panels;
• Shorter assembly time; market situation - 3 days, project result - 1.5 days;
• Integration and modularity of the heating function; market situation - average, project result - high;
• Integration and modularity of additional active functions; market situation – does not exist, project result – has been achieved;
• Reduction of energy consumption; market situation - 200W/m2 with a 3100 h/year use regime and a maximum surface temperature of 27 oC, project result – reduction of 12%;
• Adaptability to different climatic zones, such as additional standardisation factor, market situation – does not exist; project result – has been achieved;
• Design, development and implementation in the national market of productive and test technology for this type of innovative pavement; market situation – exists at the level of the state of the art from an international point of view, does not exist at the national level; project result – has been achieved;

LIST OF COMMUNICATIONS

Romero A., Galvín P.; António J., Domínguez J., Tadeu A. 2017 – “Modelling of acoustic and elastic wave propagation from underground structures using a 2.5D BEM-FEM approach”. Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements, Vol. 76, pp. 26-39.

Tadeu A., Romero A., Stanak P., Sladek J., Sladek V., Galvin P., Antonio J. 2017 - “Modeling elastic wave propagation in fluid-filled boreholes drilled in nonhomogeneous media: BEM – MLPG versus BEM-FEM coupling”. Enginering Analysis with Boundary Elements, Vol. 81, pp. 1–11.

Pedro F., Dias S., Tadeu A., António J., López O., Coelho A. – “Experimental characterisation of composite panels for railway flooring”. ICRMTSDIT 2018: 20th International Conference on Railway Mass Transit Systems, Design and Interiors Technology. Paris, France. 19-20 February 2018.

López O., Pedro F., Tadeu A., António J., Coelho A. – “Railway Composite Flooring Design: Numerical Simulation and Experimental Studies”. ICRMTSDIT 2018: 20th International Conference on Railway Mass Transit Systems, Design and Interiors Technology. Paris, France. 19-20 February 2018.

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS

Romero A., Galvín P.; António J., Domínguez J., Tadeu A. 2017 – “Modelling of acoustic and elastic wave propagation from underground structures using a 2.5D BEM-FEM approach”. Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements, Vol. 76, pp. 26-39.

Tadeu A., Romero A., Stanak P., Sladek J., Sladek V., Galvin P., Antonio J. 2017 - “Modeling elastic wave propagation in fluid-filled boreholes drilled in nonhomogeneous media: BEM – MLPG versus BEM-FEM coupling”. Enginering Analysis with Boundary Elements, Vol. 81, pp. 1–11.

Pedro F., Dias S., Tadeu A., António J., López O., Coelho A. – “Experimental characterisation of composite panels for railway flooring”. ICRMTSDIT 2018: 20th International Conference on Railway Mass Transit Systems, Design and Interiors Technology. Paris, France. 19-20 February 2018.

López O., Pedro F., Tadeu A., António J., Coelho A. – “Railway Composite Flooring Design: Numerical Simulation and Experimental Studies”. ICRMTSDIT 2018: 20th International Conference on Railway Mass Transit Systems, Design and Interiors Technology. Paris, France. 19-20 February 2018.