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3D Rail Infrastructure Design Project

This document outlines an assessment for a railway infrastructure design course. Students are asked to complete the geometric design of a railway line between two stations, including: 1. Determining two potential route alignments and selecting the best option. 2. Designing the horizontal and vertical alignments, including curve dimensions and chainage tables. 3. Sizing the cross-section and drainage system to accommodate rolling stock movements and drainage requirements. The design must be presented in a 25-page report covering the route selection, alignments, cross-section, and drainage system, with calculations and drawings to demonstrate the design process.

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32 views4 pages

3D Rail Infrastructure Design Project

This document outlines an assessment for a railway infrastructure design course. Students are asked to complete the geometric design of a railway line between two stations, including: 1. Determining two potential route alignments and selecting the best option. 2. Designing the horizontal and vertical alignments, including curve dimensions and chainage tables. 3. Sizing the cross-section and drainage system to accommodate rolling stock movements and drainage requirements. The design must be presented in a 25-page report covering the route selection, alignments, cross-section, and drainage system, with calculations and drawings to demonstrate the design process.

Uploaded by

nilushka cl
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

SEN729 Railway Infrastructure Design and Management

Assessment task 1‐ Railway Geometric Design

Due date: Thursday, 6 April 2023 @8pm AEST ASSESSMENT

Weighting: 35%

Length: 25 A4 pages excluding title page and appendices

1
Submission Requirement:
• Individual work: This project is an individual-based assessment.
• Submission: You are required to prepare and upload a single PDF file (only one file per
submission with your Student ID as the file name) to Assessment 1 submission folder on the unit
site (CloudDeakin). The submitted file must be readable by Turnitin. Any other files (Excel,
Word, AutoCAD, CIVIL 3D, etc.) will not be marked or referenced.
• Extension Requests: Please follow the university’s procedure for submitting extension requests
or special consideration. Do not send emails to request extensions.

Objectives
This assessment relates to the Unit Learning Outcomes 1, 3 and 4. It aims to develop and assess your
ability to undertake the geometric design of a railway line including its surface drainage system. The
designs are performed in accordance with relevant Australian standards and guidelines.

Project Details & Inputs


A section of double-track railway line is to be constructed to connect two stations A and B given on
the attached topographic map. You are required to design the geometric elements of this railway line.
The design should cover the route location, horizontal and vertical alignments, structure outline and
surface drainage system of the railway track. The following are the project’s specific information and
constraints obtained from field surveys or supplied by relevant stakeholders:
• The railway track is designed for the use of Branch Line Freight (BLF) trains in accordance with
Australian track classification (AS 7630).
• The types of vehicles using this railway track are RISSB Reference Vehicle number (AS 7507):
1 and 2 𝑖𝑓 𝑡≤3
{ 2 and 3 𝑖𝑓 3<𝑡≤6
3 and 4 𝑖𝑓 𝑡>6
where 𝑡 is the last digit of your student ID (e.g. 𝑡 = 1 if the student ID is 987654321)
• The maximum permissible speed and minimum permissible speed (on horizontal curves) of
vehicles using this railway track are:
80 km/h and 50 km/h 𝑖𝑓 𝑡≤3
{ 90 km/h and 50 km/h 𝑖𝑓 3<𝑡≤6
100 km/h and 60 km/h 𝑖𝑓 𝑡>6
where 𝑡 is the last digit of your student ID (e.g. 𝑡 = 1 if the student ID is 987654321)
• Standard gauge (gauge = 1435 mm) and concrete sleepers are adopted for this railway track.
• The height/depth of cut slopes and fill slopes on this track should NOT exceed 10 m. The batter
slope of both cuts and fills are 1V:2H.
• The length of all rail vehicles using this track is expected to be NOT more than 100 m.
• The ruling grade of this railway track is 1 in 50. The helper grade is not allowed for this track due
to cost constraints.
• At least 8 second of perception-reaction time should be provided over this track.
• The railway corridor (cross-section) comprises the track structure (e.g. rails, sleepers and ballast)
with cess drains on two sides of the ballast shoulders and outside the track structure outline. The
cess drains are directly connected to the cut/fill slope.
• The design rainfall intensity of the track’s surface drainage system is 50 mm/h and the runoff
coefficient of the local area is 0.5.
• Catch drains are built on top of the cut slopes to collect runoff outside the cut slopes.
• The required freeboard (i.e., distance from water surface to the track formation level) for the
surface drainage system is NOT less than 100 mm.
• The required thickness of railway formation at culvert section is NOT less than 0.4 m to satisfy
the bearing capacity requirement of the track structure.
• Other required information can be reasonably assumed in accordance with relevant design
standards and your engineering judgements.

Notes:
• All given tasks in this assessment can be done manually and/or with the help of AutoCad. There
is no need of using CIVIL 3D software unless you want to do so. Whether you use CIVIL 3D
or not, you still have to submit the report as outlined below (Chapter 1 to 6) with sufficient details
and stepwise designs/calculations of all geometric elements.
• Data taken from the topographic map (e.g., length, deflection angles, ground surface elevations,
ground slope, etc.) can be reasonably approximated, but all follow-up calculations based on this
data should be accurately performed.
• While the tasks below are grouped in 6 chapters based on the general sequence of track geometric
design, iterative processes may be required to achieve a reasonable design for some elements. If
this is the case, you only need to present your final design in the report with explanation.
• For any tasks below that require to “design”, “calculate” or “determine”, you must present your
manual calculations and explanations. Results obtained directly from CIVIL 3D are NOT
accepted.
• For any tasks that contain repeated calculations, you do not have to show all detailed calculations
in the report. Rather, you only need to show a typical calculation once and present the results of
the rest in tables or graphs with explanation.

Questions and Report Content


Suggested contents of the report are as follows:

• Chapter 1: Project Introduction


In this chapter, you are required to introduce the design problem, objectives, methodology and
interpretation of the design inputs based on your student ID. (0.5 mark)

• Chapter 2: Rail Route Location


This chapter focuses on determining the route location of this railway track. In particular, you are
required to complete the following tasks:
✓ Task 2.1: Use the leading line method to establish two different routes connecting station A
and B on the topographic map. (1.5 marks)
✓ Task 2.2: Based on the two established routes, draw two railway locations on the topographic
map (Note: all the route locations should NOT have more than 3 deflection points. The length
of all sessions and deflection angle should be presented in the drawings). (1 mark)
✓ Task 2.3: Compare and discuss the quality (e.g., potential safety problems, economic aspect,
etc.) of these two route locations. Then, select the best one for further designs (Chapter 3 to
6). (1 mark)

• Chapter 3: Horizontal Alignment Design


This chapter focuses on designing the horizontal alignment of this railway track. In particular, you
are required to complete the following tasks:
✓ Task 3.1: Design the horizontal alignment of this railway track (Note: the design should
involve determining necessary dimensions of all components on the horizontal alignment
(e.g., circular curves, transition curves, applied cants and cant ramps)). (3.5 marks)
✓ Task 3.2: Determine and tabulate the chainages (CHs) of all control points (e.g., TS, ST, SC,
CS, SP) of all horizontal curves on this railway track. (2 marks)
✓ Task 3.3: Draw the horizontal alignment on the topographic map showing the lengths of
tangents, circular curves and transition curves, as well as CHs of all control points. (1 mark)
✓ Task 3.4: Determine the gauge widening distance of the longest horizontal curve on this
railway track. Then, comment on the potential places on this track where the sight distance
requirement should be checked. (1 mark)

• Chapter 4: Vertical Alignment Design


This chapter focuses on designing the vertical alignment of this railway track. In particular, you
are required to complete the following tasks:
✓ Task 4.1: Draw the track grades (without vertical curves) on the natural ground profile along
the horizontal alignment of this railway track. Explain how the selected grades satisfy the
design requirements and balancing earthworks. (2.5 marks)
✓ Task 4.2: Design the vertical alignment of this railway section (Note: the design should
involve determining necessary dimensions of the vertical curves (e.g., curve radius, length,
etc.)). (2 marks)
✓ Task 4.3: Determine and tabulate the CHs and RLs of all control points (e.g., PVI, BVC,
EVC, IP) on the vertical curves of this railway track. Then, check the requirements associated
with the vertical alignment design (2 mark)
✓ Task 4.4: Draw the vertical alignment on the natural ground profile showing the length of
grades and vertical curves, as well as the CHs and RLs of all control points. (1 mark)

• Chapter 5: Cross-section Design


This chapter focuses on designing the cross-section of this railway corridor. In particular, you are
required to complete the following tasks:
✓ Task 5.1: Determine and draw the structure outline of the track taking into account the effects
of both horizontal and vertical curves. Thereby, determine the minimum railway formation
width to provide sufficient clearance for rolling stocks to safely operate on this track (Note:
the drawings of the structure outline should show all of its necessary dimensions. Drawings
of the result of each step toward the structure outline should also be presented). (3 marks)
✓ Task 5.2: Based on the alignment designed in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4, determine and
tabulate the RLs of railway formation at inner and outer rails and the applied cants at 20 m
intervals throughout the longest horizontal curve of the track (from point TS to ST). Know
that the distance from the track formation level to the rail head is 0.8 m. (2 marks)

• Chapter 6: Drainage System Design


This chapter focuses on designing the surface drainage system of this railway track. In particular,
you are required to complete the following tasks:
✓ Task 6.1: Design the cess drain for the longest cut slope section on the railway track. Know
that the cess drains are lined by concrete and have a trapezoidal shape with the side slope of
1V:2H. (3 marks)
✓ Task 6.2: Draw the cross-section of the cess drain showing all dimensions and the highest
water level in the cess drain. (0.5 mark)
✓ Task 6.3: Design a reinforced concrete pipe culvert system located at the end of the longest
cut slope section to convey run-off water from both the cess drain designed above and a
waterway connecting to this culvert (4.5 marks). Know that:
➢ This waterway has a rectangular shape with a stable rock bed. The waterway bed slope
is 0.8% and the bed width is 5.5 m. The design flow rate in the waterway is 6 m3/s.
➢ Distance from the track formation level to the waterway bed is 1.8 m at the culvert inlet.
✓ Task 6.4: Draw the longitudinal and transverse cross-sections of the culvert system showing
all necessary dimensions. (1 mark)

Submission Guidelines
Your report should follow the structure suggested in the previous section and address the following
requirements (2 marks):
• The report should include title page, table of contents and list of figures and tables.
• The report should be clear and concise, and provide sufficient explanation and context
information for each tasks (NOT just equations or numbers). The report should be written in
MS Word or similar software. Scan of hand-writing is NOT accepted (Note: this is for checking
plagiarism via Turnitin).
• All figures should be professionally drawn. Hand-drawings are accepted but they should be
clear and at a high quality.
• Provide number and caption for all tables and figures you created sequentially. Write equations
using the equation tool in MS Word or the like (do NOT use plain text).
• Write proper units of measurements for all calculated values in the report.
• Harvard style should be used for reference and a reference list should be provided at the end of
the report.

Marking Scheme
• The marks allocated for each task are given at the end of the task in each Chapter (1 to 6). Your
answer of each task should include sufficient explanations, detailed stepwise calculations and
clear drawing or tabulation if required.
• Not only main calculations but also all relevant checks and justifications related to the design
tasks of geometric elements should be performed and presented in the report.
• 2 marks are allocated to the report presentation. The report must follow and address all the
requirements in Submission Guidelines to achieve full marks.

--------------- End ---------------


***

Common questions

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The SEN729 assessment ensures compliance with academic integrity through several measures such as requiring individual work, prohibiting direct outputs from CIVIL 3D software, and mandating the submission of reports in a specific format readable by Turnitin for plagiarism checking. These standards are designed to uphold academic honesty and ensure students demonstrate their understanding and skills .

An efficient surface drainage system is crucial in railway geometric design to manage water flow and prevent track degradation. The SEN729 assessment mandates a design rainfall intensity of 50 mm/h and a runoff coefficient of 0.5, indicating significant planning for water management. Adequate drainage prevents track washouts and subsidence, which could lead to safety hazards and increased maintenance costs. Therefore, effective drainage systems maintain track stability and operational safety .

The student's ID influences the design tasks by determining vehicle types and speed limits for the railway track. For instance, the last digit of the student ID impacts which vehicles use the track and what maximum speeds are allowable. If the last digit is \( t \leq 3 \), vehicle types 1 and 2 are allowed with speeds up to 80 km/h, while \( t > 6 \) allows vehicle types 3 and 4 with speeds up to 100 km/h .

In the SEN729 railway design project, providing at least 8 seconds of perception-reaction time is critical to ensure safe train operations. This buffer accommodates the time required for train operators to perceive a situation and react accordingly. It is vital for maintaining safe stopping distances, particularly on curves and gradients, and helps prevent accidents by compensating for human and mechanical response delays. Adequate perception-reaction time enhances safety by providing sufficient operational buffer space .

The iterative design process in railway geometric design involves refining design elements through repeated cycles to achieve optimal alignment and layout. In SEN729, this could mean adjusting horizontal and vertical alignments, re-evaluating slope gradients, or optimizing drainage designs until the railway meets all design constraints and standards. The iterative process ensures that the final design is practical and meets safety and economic requirements, while maintaining compliance with Australian standards .

Designing a railway track with a ruling grade of 1 in 50 involves several challenges and considerations, such as balancing the cut and fill volumes for earthworks and ensuring train operational efficiency without helper grades due to cost constraints. The grade must allow efficient train movement while preventing excessive strain on engines and maintaining speed limits. Designers must ensure that slopes do not exceed the maximum permissible height/depth and adhere to safety guidelines for track stability .

Cess drains, incorporated into the railway design, serve as integral components for managing surface runoff and controlling water levels near the railway structure. These drains, lined with concrete and trapezoidal in shape, are positioned alongside cut and fill slopes and connected to the track's alignment. Their configuration ensures efficient water diversion away from the tracks, reducing the risk of substructure erosion and maintaining the track bed's integrity, as required by the SEN729 guidelines .

Drawing a track's vertical and horizontal alignment on a topographic map is significant as it visually demonstrates how the railway will interact with existing environmental contours and grade changes. This practice, as emphasized in the SEN729 assessment, helps in identifying potential design challenges, optimizing alignment for safety and efficiency, and ensuring compliance with slope and grade constraints. Accurate maps serve as critical planning tools, enabling coherent design communication and thorough spatial analysis .

The design of a culvert system in the SEN729 railway assessment must account for a stable rock bed waterway with a 0.8% slope and a 5.5 m bed width, managing a flow rate of 6 m³/s. Additionally, it must allow adequate clearance from the track formation level to the waterway bed, positioned at 1.8 m at the culvert inlet. These parameters ensure the culvert can efficiently handle runoff and connected waterway flows without risking track stability .

The key elements involved in designing the geometric layout of a railway line include the determination of route location, horizontal and vertical alignments, structure outline, and surface drainage system. The design must comply with Australian standards such as AS 7630 for track classification and other relevant guidelines, ensuring aspects like maximum and minimum permissible speeds, standard gauge rail widths, and specific slope requirements .

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