Sustainability and recyclability of composite materials for railway turnout systems

Kaewunruen, Sakdirat; Liao, P.

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124890

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…BIM is also a coordinated digital dataset where relevant parties can access the information on the design and operation and any necessary documents about the project. Any changes within the model are immediately reflected throughout the rest of the project in all views [ 24 ]. BIM or the digital twin emphasises the role of all stakeholders in a project and analyses the capabilities of issues in construction, design, operation and maintenance at the early stages, which provides more economical, environmental and time-efficient information than the traditional construction outcomes.…”

Section: Research Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Twins for Managing Railway Bridge Maintenance, Resilience, and Climate Change Adaptation

Kaewunruen

AbdelHadi

Kongpuang

et al. 2022

Sensors

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Innovative digital twins (DTs) that allow engineers to visualise, share information, and monitor the condition during operation is necessary to optimise railway construction and maintenance. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an approach for creating and managing an inventive 3D model simulating digital information that is useful to project management, monitoring and operation of a specific asset during the whole life cycle assessment (LCA). BIM application can help to provide an efficient cost management and time schedule and reduce the project delivery time throughout the whole life cycle of the project. In this study, an innovative DT has been developed using BIM integration through a life cycle analysis. Minnamurra Railway Bridge (MRB), Australia, has been chosen as a real-world use case to demonstrate the extended application of BIM (i.e., the DT) to enhance the operation, maintenance and asset management to improve the sustainability and resilience of the railway bridge. Moreover, the DT has been exploited to determine GHG emissions and cost consumption through the integration of BIM. This study demonstrates the feasibility of DT technology for railway maintenance and resilience optimisation. It also generates a virtual collaboration for co-simulations and co-creation of values across stakeholders participating in construction, operation and maintenance, and enhancing a reduction in costs and GHG emission.

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Section: Research Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital Twins for Managing Railway Bridge Maintenance, Resilience, and Climate Change Adaptation

Kaewunruen

AbdelHadi

Kongpuang

et al. 2022

Sensors

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“…In [2], Oliveira et al presented a novel hybrid polymer composite made from sugarcane bagasse and discarded rubber particles, concluding that the mechanical and physical properties were substantially affected by the amount and size of the rubber particles and that the presence of sugarcane bagasse increased the compressive toughness of hybrid composites. The use of sustainable composites for transport applications had been presented in [5,6] regarding the development of alternative sustainable lightweight composites to reduce weight and costs in the automotive industry and in [7] for railways, considering the calculations of carbon emissions and energy consumption for the overall life cycle of sleepers, including recyclability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Study of Drilling Damage Outcomes in Hybrid Composites with Waste Micro-Inclusions

Durão,

Matos,

Alves

et al. 2023

Materials

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Composite materials are used in a substantial number of products. Environmental concerns highlight the need for the inclusion of recovered waste in their formulation, thus reducing their carbon footprint. These solutions raise the need to confirm the mechanical characteristics of these materials, avoiding unwanted failures. In this work, the authors present an experimental study on the drilling effects on fibrous–particulate hybrid composites made of glass/carbon fabrics and three different micro-inclusions: silica particles, recycled carbon fibre powder and cement. The mechanical features of the plates are confirmed by thrust force monitoring during drilling and by flexural testing. The range of results confirm the mechanical outcomes due to machining. The plates with monolithic carbon fabric or with carbon fabric plies in the outer plies returned higher mechanical characteristics. The plates with micro-inclusions had enhanced the flexural strength by 23% and 10%, in 40% and 60% fabric plates, respectively. The results demonstrate that the use of alternative formulations with micro-inclusions from recovered waste can contribute both to the reduction of the mechanical degradation of drilled hybrid composites and to environmental purposes by avoiding the increase in landfill waste.

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“…The UK government put forward the Climate Change Act in 2008, later updated in 2019, as a legally binding target to reduce the UK's greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to 100% lower than the 1990 baseline [3]. To meet this target, the industry is looking to move away from conventional construction and be accountable for its impact [4][5][6][7][8]. Sustainable development is generally defined as "development which meets the need of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs" [9,10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessments of an Innovative FRP Composite Footbridge

Jena

Kaewunruen

2021

Sustainability

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Sustainable construction and the design of low-carbon structures is a major concern for the UK construction industry. FRP composite materials are seen as a suitable alternative to traditional construction materials due to their high strength and light weight. Network Rail has developed a prototype for a new innovative footbridge made entirely from FRP with the aim of replacing the current steel design for footbridges. This study conducted a life cycle analysis of this novel composite footbridge design to quantify the cost and environmental benefits. An LCA and LCC analysis framework was used to analyse the environmental impacts and cost savings of the bridge throughout its lifespan from raw material extraction to its end of life. From the results of the LCA and LCC, the FRP footbridge sustainability was reviewed and compared to a standard steel footbridge. Due to the uncertainty of the fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) structure’s lifespan, multiple scenarios for longevity at the assets-use stage were studied. The study revealed that the FRP bridge offered substantial economic savings whilst presenting potentially worse environmental impacts, mainly caused by the impact of the production of FRP materials. However, our study also demonstrated the influences of uncertainties related to the glass-fibre-reinforced plastic (GFRP) material design life and end-of-life disposal on the whole life cycle analyses. The results show that if the FRP footbridge surpasses its original estimation for lifespan, the economic savings can be increased and the environmental impacts can be reduced substantially.

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Sustainability and recyclability of composite materials for railway turnout systems

Cited by 11 publications

References 43 publications

Digital Twins for Managing Railway Bridge Maintenance, Resilience, and Climate Change Adaptation

Digital Twins for Managing Railway Bridge Maintenance, Resilience, and Climate Change Adaptation

Experimental Study of Drilling Damage Outcomes in Hybrid Composites with Waste Micro-Inclusions

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessments of an Innovative FRP Composite Footbridge

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