Title: Reliability analysis of track circuit of Indian railway signalling system

Authors: Subhash Chandra Panja, Pradip Kumar Ray

Addresses: Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721 302, India. ' Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721 302, India

Abstract: This paper deals with the reliability modelling of one of the vital subsystems of railway signalling, called track circuit. The track circuit, a complex repairable system, is used to identify the occupancy of a portion of railway track by a train. It is observed that operations of track circuit are affected by a number of problems in relation to its intensity of use, repair and maintenance and environmental stress. Keeping in view its operating efficiency to the effect of these problems, the recommended parametric model based on repairable system technique is applied to estimate the failure rate probability of the system. Two graphical methods, viz., Nelson−Aalen and Total Time on Test (TTT) plots, are used to analyse the trend of the failure time data for a set of representative track circuits in Kharagpur Division of Indian Railways. Finally, the intensity function of the track circuit is assessed and investigated.

Keywords: reliability analysis; track circuits; repairable systems; Nelson plot; total time on test; TTT plot; homogeneous Poisson process; HPP; non-homogeneous Poisson process; NHPP; likelihood ratio; p-value; India; Indian railways; railway signalling; reliability modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRS.2007.016258

International Journal of Reliability and Safety, 2007 Vol.1 No.4, pp.428 - 445

Published online: 13 Dec 2007 *

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