NEWS

Date	Subject
28 June 2011	Seminar on Noise and Vibration On 28 June 2011 a seminar on Noise and Vibration was held in Ankara, Turkey, hosted by TCDD in cooperation with ALOM, LINK and Amorim. After some background on the theory and the principles applicable for vibration reduction and mitigating measures, various practical solutions were presented and discussed. Under Sleeper Pads (USP) were considered as one of the most cost-effective measures for reducing vibration propagation. The principle is based on lowering the natural frequency and this requires a relatively large mass on a soft spring. A natural frequency of 20 Hz, above which vibrations will be reduced, should be considered as the maximum achievable for this kind of solutions. Furthermore softer rail pads will have a positive effect on confining the transmission of forces in the higher frequencies and thus will enhance the life cycle of the track structure. But also the short wave irregularities in the rail running surface and the wheel running surface should be controlled, as they are the primary source for generating high frequency force excitations. For this reason it was emphasized that quality control and monitoring is of prime importance. In this context Dr. Esveld presented the new force-based weld geometry standards used by ProRail in The Netherlands and the RAILPROF measuring device.
May 2011	Cooperation with ALOM On 2 May 2011 Coenraad Esveld and Edwin Aerts, Director of ALOM BV in Arkel, The Netherlands, signed an agreement for cooperation. ALOM is a supplier of track components, such as rail pads, fastening systems and sleepers. An important focus is polyurethane and crock rubber for application in high speed rail and for noise and vibration mitigation solutions. For further information please refer to www.alom.eu.
May 2011	Japanese version of Modern Railway Track released Preface to the Japanese edition of Modern Railway Track The first edition of Modern Railway Track, published in 1989, was translated into Japanese by my colleague and friend Dr. Yoshihiko Sato in 1993. It was also Dr. Sato who provided the necessary input on Japanese track technology and practice for the second edition. Nowadays an important focus is on high-speed track technology, as high-speed networks are expanding rapidly, especially in Asia and Europe. Japan was the initiator and pioneer of high-speed technology, later followed by France and other European countries. Although the French network mainly comprises of traditional ballasted track, Japan strongly focused on slab track, with the well-known and successful J-Slab. Studies on life cycle cost and availability have shown the great potential of non-ballasted tracks and their great advantages of maintenance reduction. This has now emerged to large scale slab track applications worldwide, with Shinkansen J-Slab and the German Rheda2000 as the leading solutions. It was a great honor and pleasure when I received the letter of Mr. Toshihiko Kunihiro, General Manager Track & Structures Department of the West Japanese Railway Company, to ask my approval for the translation of Modern Railway Track – Second Edition – into Japanese, which I of course readily accepted. It was Dr. Kenzo Tokuoda, former Senior Executive Managing Director of JR-West and a highly respected railway engineer, who carried out the tedious translation job. I would like to express my great appreciation to him for his dedicated work, making my book more accessible to the Japanese railway community. Zaltbommel, August 2010 Coenraad Esveld
February 2011	Seminar on high-speed lines in Asia and Europe at the Technical University of Madrid This seminar was organized by the University of Madrid, on the initiative of Prof. Manuel Melis. For program click here. There were contributions from China Prof H. Xia and Prof W. Zhai), Korea (Dr. K. In-Jae), Taiwan (Prof. T.C. Kao), Germany (Prof. Stephan Freudenstein) and The Netherlands (Prof. Coenraad Esveld). It was quite impressive to hear about the progress in China, where by the end of 2011 the high-speed route length will be about 13,000 km, which will be increased in 2020 to around 30,000 km. In the next 5 years China will invest € 400 billion in railways. The long term route length for high-speed lines in Spain is in the order of 3,500 km, Japan 2,500 km, France 2,000 km and Germany 1,400 km. Beijing-Shanghai 1,318 km, 80 % bridges, Vmax = 380 km/h, travel time 4 hours, 230 trains per day, 160 million passengers/year.
October 2010	LONGSTAB The program LONGSTAB for the analysis of longitudinal forces and stability has been modified and is now compatible with Windows 7.
October 2010	New Release of PDA software 4.1 for RAILPROF In this new release automatic connection to the GPRS network has been resolved.
17-18 May 2010	CETRA 2010 From 17 -18 May the First International Conference on Road and Rail Infrastructure was held in Opatija, Croatia. Coenraad Esveld was invited for a keynote address entitled Recent Developments in High-Speed Track. To download the paper click here.
22 January 2010	New software release for RAILPROF PDA A new version of the RAILPROF PDA software is released with the following new features: built-in ftp client for wireless transfer of measurement files. The files are stored on the ftp server in the directory \\Job\Welder. At any time the welder can push the button ‘Send FTP’ to send all the measuring files not yet transmitted. A copy of the files remains on the SD card of the PDA. Furthermore additional speed classes have been added, especially in the lower speed range for metro and tram applications. The third point is that the RAILPROF will be kept awake as long as the operator is working in the measuring menu on the PDA. Normally the RAILPROF is switches off after 10 minutes of not being used.
1 December 2009	Announcement of new software release for RAILPROF PDA Around 1 December 2009 a new version of the RAILPROF PDA software will be released.
6 October 2009	Article in first Digital Issue of European Railway Review Link to first Issue Article of Coenraad Esveld as pdf
July 2009	Distributorship Agreement with Japan In July 2009 Sumitomo Metal Technology, INC. (SMT) and Esveld Consulting Services BV (ECS) signed an agreement in which SMT was granted the distributorship of the RAILPROF products for the Japanese market.
15 April 2009	Visit of SMT-Railway (Nippon Steel) A delegation of Sumitomo Metal Technology, Japan, was in Holland to discuss cooperation for distributing the RAILPROF in Japan. Pictures were taken at De Rooy Slijpbedrijf in Nuenen, where tests were carried out with the RAILPROF on precision ground and measured rail pieces. The precision measurements were done with a Mitutoyo 3D Coordinates measuring machine.
06 April 2009	New version 3.2 of RAILPROF Desktop Software, was delivered to Volker Rail for assessment of corrugation and rail grinding results. This version contains 3 extra wavebands: 10 – 30 mm, 30 – 100 mm and 100 – 300 mm, for which the following parameters are calculated: average wavelength, exceedence percentage of standard, average amplitude and grinding depth.
March 2009	WeldRegister is nu ook in het Nederlands beschikbaar onder de naam LasRegister. De Nederlandse versie draait thans bij RailOK en Strukton. BAM heeft het systeem aangekocht.
13 March 2009	New version 3.1.1 of RAILPROF Desktop software, solving the problem of correctly showing menus on screens with a vertical resolution lower than 850 dpi.
January 2009	European Railway Review: Industry Focus 2009 Some Aspects of Track Design by Coenraad Esveld
22-29 November 2008	Site Visit and Advice to Mumbai Railways and Seminar on New Technologies Advised on maintenance issues and decision support systems for a World Bank project lead by MerMec, Italy. It was quite impressive to experience that both Central Railways and Western Railways carry 60 MGT per annum for passenger traffic. In the Netherlands the average figure is less than 10 % of this value. The possibilities for carrying out track maintenance are very restricted due to possession time and track access conditions. New maintenance and inspection technologies were presented by Professor Coenraad Esveld in a seminar held on 26 November, with amongst others the following topics: • Impact of rail and wheel surface problems; • Grinding technology; • Importance of resilience. Use of USP (under sleeper pads) and more resilient polyurethane rail pads; • New weld geometry standards developed by Delft University of Technology for ProRail; • Demo of WeldRegister Pocket PC for the wireless transmission of inspection data and RAILPROF measuring files and the use of the WeldRegister Access database.