Digital maintenance of railway bridges
Table of contents
Project data
| Titel | Title TP der TU Dresden im Verbundprojekt DiMaRB: Digitale Instandhaltung von Eisenbahnbrücken | SP of TU Dresden in the joint research project DiMaRB: Digital maintenance of railway bridges Förderer | Funding Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur (BMVI) / mFUND Zeitraum | Period 09/2018 – 02/2022 Teilprojektleiter | Sub-project manager Prof. Dr.-Ing. Steffen Marx Bearbeiter | Contributors Jan-Hauke Bartels, M.Sc., Max Herbers, M.Sc. Projektpartner | Project partners 6 Partner, davon 2 aus der Forschung, 2 KMU und 2 Assoziierte |
Report from year book 2021
Tomorrow‘s bridge maintenance
Sensor application on the Railway Bridge Veltener Str. (Hennigsdorf)
The maintenance of railway bridges is currently characterized by a reactive, problem-oriented approach. Only when the operator of the structure detects a deficiency in the structure during the legally required inspections, the planning of a maintenance action is carried out. Then, due to the advanced state of the damage, these actions are usually expensive. Predictive, long-term monitoring, as established in many other industrial sectors, would lead to a reduction in maintenance costs and a reduction in the risk of failure.
The DiMaRB project, therefore, develops a digital, predictive maintenance concept for railway bridges based on the use of structural health monitoring (SHM) and the building information modeling (BIM) method. With the permanent acquisition and evaluation of measurement data on the current structural condition, changes in condition, and thus possible damage, are detected early on. In addition to the BIM model, all maintenance-relevant information from planning, construction and operation is stored on the central maintenance platform shBIM (structural health BIM). This is also where all communication between all stakeholders in the maintenance process takes place.
Along with the project partners, the Institute of Concrete Structures is researching the necessary methods for a basic concept of digitally supported maintenance of the railroad infrastructure in Germany in close cooperation with Leibniz University Hannover. In addition to the recording of the actual condition, prognosis models are being researched that allow the prediction of the future condition of the bridge.
The implementation of the shBIM platform has been successful. It is already possible to display the evaluated measurement data series in real-time in the shBIM model. Besides, large parts of the Deutsche Bahn (DB) database have been evaluated, allowing the development of inventory-based forecast models.
At the end of the project, the concept for bridge monitoring over the entire service life will be finalized. This will help in the research of measurement data-based prognosis models and thus the refinement of the sensor data. The developed maintenance concepts and methods will be validated on existing bridge structures.
Report from year book 2020
Digital bridge maintenance
Visualization of the shBIM-platform
The maintenance of railway bridges is currently characterized by a reactive, problem-oriented approach. Only when the operator of the structure detects a deficiency in the structure during the legally required inspections, the planning of a maintenance action is carried out. Then, due to the advanced state of damage, these actions are usually expensive. In some cases, completely new construction is even necessary. Predictive, long-term monitoring, as established in many other industrial sectors, would lead to a reduction in maintenance costs and a reduction in the risk of failure.
The DiMaRB project, therefore, develops a digital, predictive maintenance concept for railway bridges based on the use of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) and the Building Information Modeling (BIM) method. With the permanent acquisition and evaluation of measurement data on the current structural condition, changes in condition, and thus possible damage, are detected early on. BIM also enables data integration in a digital building model. The digital maintenance platform shBIM (Structural Health BIM) is created. The digital 3D model of the real structure, which contains all information relevant to maintenance, is stored on this platform. This is also where the complete communication between all participants in the maintenance process takes place.
Along with the project partners, the Institute of Concrete Structures at the TU Dresden is researching the necessary methods for a basic concept of digitally supported maintenance of the railroad infrastructure in Germany in close cooperation with Leibniz University Hannover. In addition to the recording of the actual condition, prognosis models are being researched that allow the prediction of the future condition of the bridge.
The implementation of the shBIM platform has been successful. It is already possible to display the evaluated measurement data series in real-time in the shBIM model. Besides, large parts of the Deutsche Bahn (DB) database have been evaluated, allowing the development of inventory-based forecast models.
In the further course of the research project, a concept for bridge monitoring over the entire service life of the bridge will be developed. This will help in the research of measurement data based forecast models and thus the utilization of the sensor data. The developed maintenance concepts and methods will be verified on existing bridge structures.