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 derives significant benefits from rail transport of hazardous materials, the associated accident risks must be appropriately managed. There is growing interest from the government, railroad industry and public to optimize all approaches to effectively reduce hazardous materials transportation risk. A hazardous materials release incident can be due to various accident causes, among which broken rails are the most frequent causes. Ultrasonic rail defect inspection is commonly used to prevent broken-rail-caused train accidents, thereby reducing hazardous materials transportation risk. However, little prior research has been conducted to quantify the relationship between hazardous materials release risk and rail defect inspection frequency, nor how to optimize rail inspection schedules to maximize risk reduction across a range of resource availability. In this paper, a decision support tool is developed to determine the optimal rail defect inspection frequency of different track segments in order to reduce route risk in the most cost-efficient manner. The methodology and results are intended to assist decision makers for local, regional and systemwide risk management of hazardous materials transportation by rail.