Vehicle Dynamics
Competition Brief
Competition Brief
1
Introduction and Background
The rail white paper ‘Delivering a sustainable railway’1 published in 2007, identified Cost,
Carbon, Capacity and Customer (the 4C’s) as the primary drivers for delivering a sustainable
railway. As such cost reduction is a key objective of the rail industry.
A key area for potential cost reduction within the system lies at the interface between the vehicle
and the infrastructure i.e the wheel-rail interface, one of the damage mechanisms at this
interface is often referred to as rolling contact fatigue (RCF). In FY2013/14 the Train Operating
Companies (TOCs) paid Network Rail a total of £2.4bn in track access charges, of these
charges approximately £1bn was used for ongoing maintenance of the infrastructure, including
track. Whilst track access charges cover a range of different costs, these charges, in part, also
reflect the damage that vehicles do to the track.
Direct costs associated with the wheel-rail interface have been difficult to estimate. However,
research suggests that Network Rail spend approximately £250m per annum on track damage
related to RCF. Meanwhile the TOCs are estimated to spend circa £105m on wheelset
maintenance costs.
A variety of different approaches have been taken to date to address these issues but have
largely focused on: the investigation of different steels (usually harder) for both rails and
wheelsets; approaches to modifying suspension stiffness; and modification of wheel and rail
profiles.
This £4.5m co-funded competition launched on 25th February 2016, will focus on vehicle
based solutions to primarily address the issues of damage to track and wheelsets.
2
Competition Scope
The objectives of this competition are as follows:
▪ Primary objectives:
▫ Reduction of the costs associated with track damage
▫ Reduction of suspension and wheelset maintenance costs
▪ Secondary objectives:
▫ Enable vehicles to transition between main-line and branch line running more easily
Within the scope of this competition will be innovative solutions and approaches that may
include, but not be limited to, one or more of the following:
▪ All aspects of running gear design Including:
▫ Bogies
▫ Wheels
▫ Suspension
▫ Bearings / Axles
▪ Approaches to steering and independent steering of wheels
▪ Light-weighting of components
▪ Control of traction at the wheel-rail interface
The competition seeks overall solutions and systems rather than development of individual
components, unless development of that individual component can be demonstrated to have
significant impact, in and of its own right, on the objectives of the competition.
Out of Scope: rail infrastructure design approaches to this problem will be considered out of
scope of the competition.
1
http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20091010004003/http://www.dft.gov.uk/about/strategy/whitepapers/
whitepapercm7176/multideliversustainrailway
3
Funding
The RSSB Innovations Programme has allocated up to £4.5m to fund demonstration projects that
meet the scope outlined above.
It is expected that projects will last from 18-24 months, although projects lasting up to 30 months
will be eligible if the suitable justification can be made for this development time. We are primarily
looking to fund projects that are currently within TRL (Technology Readiness Level) 4-6 and in
exceptional circumstances will fund projects that are at TRL 3.
It is anticipated that all proposals will be business led and consortia are strongly encouraged to
address these issues. Businesses will attract up to a maximum of 70% public funding depending
on the nature of the project and the type of business, universities and research organisations are
eligible to apply as part of consortia. For all consortia, including research organisations, the total
costs for all research organisations in a project will be capped at 30% of the total project value.
Future Railway will fund individual projects up to a maximum value of £1.5m.
All awards are subject to state aid requirements and further details of this is provided in the
guidance documents that are part of the full application pack that you will receive upon
registering your interest in the competition.
4
Application
In order to enter this competition you must be registered for the competition.
A briefing event for interested suppliers will be held on the 24 March at 1 Wimpole Street. The
event will set out the challenge and competition scope in detail and provide a networking
opportunity.
To register your interest in the competition and/or the briefing event, please go to:
http://www.cvent.com/d/vfqq1r
Upon registration you will receive all information relevant to this competition, including the
application form and application guidelines.
5
Key Dates
Key Dates
Competition launch
25 February 2016
Full Application pack released
16 March 2016
Supplier briefing and consortia building event
24 March 2016
Registration deadline
19 May 2016
Deadline for submissions
2 June 2016