Optimization of Rail Defect Inspection Frequency to Reduce Railroad Hazardous Materials Transportation Risk

摘要

Railroads safely and efficiently transport hazardous materials. While the society derivessignificant benefits from rail transport of hazardous materials, the associated accident risks mustbe appropriately managed. There is growing interest from the government, railroad industry andpublic to optimize all approaches to effectively reduce hazardous materials transportation risk. Ahazardous materials release incident can be due to various accident causes, among which brokenrails are the most frequent causes. Ultrasonic rail defect inspection is commonly used to preventbroken-rail-caused train accidents, thereby reducing hazardous materials transportation risk.However, little prior research has been conducted to quantify the relationship between hazardousmaterials release risk and rail defect inspection frequency, nor how to optimize rail inspectionschedules to maximize risk reduction across a range of resource availability. In this paper, adecision support tool is developed to determine the optimal rail defect inspection frequency ofdifferent track segments in order to reduce route risk in the most cost-efficient manner. Themethodology and results are intended to assist decision makers for local, regional and systemwiderisk management of hazardous materials transportation by rail.