RaIL - Rail and Infrastructure Laboratory

In order to counteract climate change, among other things, the company is aiming to double rail capacity by 2040. The basis for this is a more efficient infrastructure. In order to make this infrastructure more resistant and at the same time less maintenance intensive, a basic physical understanding of the interaction of wheel-rail forces and their load transfer is necessary. In particular, complex systems (switches, transition areas, etc.) must also be analysed in detail. This knowledge is best acquired through a combination of analytical procedures, simulations, tests in the track and laboratory. The facilities for simulations and (field) measurements are already available, however a laboratory for investigating the forces arising from wheel-rail contact and their derivation in the superstructure and substructure does not currently exist. The laboratory test rigs planned at Graz University of Technology are intended to close this gap and create a further unique selling point in railroad engineering for Austria as a center of science. This is to be achieved by the realization of the variable superstructure test bench. In this test rig, quasi-static loading situations due to multi-axial stress conditions and wheelset impacts can be simulated on adjustable superstructure and substructure conditions combined with definable environmental influences. The aim of the laboratory is to create a link between the calculation/simulation, and the approval tests of the products as well as their long-term behaviour in the installed system-condition. Furthermore, possibilities for cost-effective, reproducible, scientific measurements are to be created, in order to, among other things, systematically deepen basic knowledge, to examine individual components and to carry out iterations in product development quickly under constant conditions. In addition, the graduates of Graz University of Technology gain in-depth practical knowledge through laboratory projects and final theses.