Browsing by Author "Zhuwaki, Nigel Tatenda"

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    Application of reliability analysis for performance assessments in railway infrastructure asset management
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-03) Zhuwaki, Nigel Tatenda; Fourie, Cornelius Jacobus; Van Eeden, Joubert; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Industrial Engineering.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Reliable railway infrastructure systems guarantee the safety of operations and the availability of train services. With an increase in mobility demands, it is increasingly becoming a challenge to deliver railway infrastructure systems with a sustainable functionality that meets the various dependability attributes such as reliability, availability, and maintainability. Decisions related to infrastructure asset management in the railway industry focus on the maintenance, enhancement, and renewal of assets. This is to ensure that the infrastructure assets meet the required level of dependability and quality of service at the lowest life cycle costs. The success of these decisions depends on the effective management of individual assets over their lifetime from the perspective of a whole systems approach. A whole systems approach offers greater advantages over the traditional silo approach which lacks integration and coordination in the maintenance and management of complex cross-functional multi-asset systems. Reliability, when applied to infrastructure asset management, is a mathematical concept associated with dependability in which engineering knowledge is applied to identify and reduce the likelihood or frequency of failures within a system. In addition, it enables a systematic analysis to be performed at various levels of the railway network to quantify the various dependability attributes of individual infrastructure assets and their impact on the overall performance of the infrastructure system. The objective of this study is to develop a scientific approach to model and evaluate the reliability performance of railway infrastructure systems. This paper presents the development and application of a holistic reliability model for multi-asset systems that can facilitate and improve infrastructure maintenance management processes in railway environments. The model is applied and validated using a practical case study in the context of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). The case study applied to PRASA`s Metrorail network concluded that a holistic performance assessment method using reliability analysis can assist in improving the maintenance and management of railway infrastructure assets to guarantee high quality of service.
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    A modelling framework for railway infrastructure reliability analysis
    (Southern African Institute for Industrial Engineering, 2017) Fourie, Cornelius Jacobus; Zhuwaki, Nigel Tatenda
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The maintenance and management of railway infrastructure plays a central role in ensuring the reliability and availability of rail transport. In a highly competitive transport market, the rail industry is required to employ new and innovative maintenance strategies that will position rail transport as an affordable and reliable transportation alternative. This can be realised through implementing maintenance strategies that prioritise efficient resource allocation. Application of reliability-based techniques to make informed decisions in maintenance management, with an overall aim of reducing operational expenditure while maintaining safety and efficiency, has been increasing. This paper presents a framework for the application of a reliability-based technique to evaluate the reliability of railway infrastructure systems.