Project on Recycled Carbon Fibers Used in Railways

Recycled Carbon Fibre for Use in Railways Project

A project allocated EUR 1.25 million by RSSB (The Rail Safety and Standards Board) in the United Kingdom aims to reduce operating costs for railway vehicles, infrastructure damage and environmental impact, while lowering weight and optimizing vertical and lateral stiffness. The two-year programme will be conducted by a consortium comprising CCT, University of Birmingham and University of Huddersfield, with additional support from Alstom. ELG Karbon Fiber will be responsible for project management and supply of recycled carbon fibre materials. It will also be responsible for multi-material design incorporating recycled carbon fibres that will meet cost and performance targets. The benefits the project aims to deliver include:

• Reducing component wear and consequently infrastructure maintenance costs by lowering vertical and lateral loads on rails,
• Improving reliability and operational availability through use of an embedded health monitoring system,
• Achieving reductions in energy consumption and global warming footprint.

Phase 1 of the project will be the consortium's work addressing the legal framework for composite structures in railway applications in collaboration with relevant authorities. Phase 2 of the project envisages the manufacture and testing of a series of full-scale demonstrators under representative service conditions using the dynamic testing facility at University of Huddersfield. The embedded health monitoring system developed by University of Birmingham School of Metallurgy and Materials will be demonstrated through these tests. The research programme is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2018.