Professional Lecture Series: J. Riley Edwards, PhD, PE from UIUC

Purdue ITE is excited to invite you to the next installment of our Professional Lecture Series! We will be hosting J. Riely Edwards, PhD, PE, from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to discuss his fascinating research in rail engineering. Please join us for an exciting evening of learning, networking, and free food!					Professional Lecture Series

Presenter: J. Riley Edwards, PhD, PE Title: Leveraging Emerging Railway Track Health Data for Track Condition Assessment and Buckle Risk Hot Spot Identification
		When		Where			RSVP
Thursday March 27^th, 2025, 5:30 – 6:30 PM			HAMP 3153			RSVP Link

Abstract	The railroad track system and its components are a critical transportation asset that is responsible for transmitting rolling stock wheel loads to the roadbed. To ensure safe and efficient operations, railroads perform frequent track inspections, some of which generate substantial amounts of track health data using automated platforms. Furthermore, with the rise of data science tools and machine learning methods, there is great potential for these data to be leveraged to further optimize maintenance and improve safety. This research presented in this seminar will draw from datasets collected from multiple track assessment systems to quantify track health, track strength, and its resistance to axial rail buckling. To predict the likelihood of the track to buckle, data from prior experimentation on track lateral strength was used to assess the effect of ballast type, ballast geometry, level of consolidation, and track curvature on track lateral resistance. These results can be mapped to new field data on track component condition, geometry, and cross-sectional ballast data to provide a numerical value of lateral resistance as an input into the buckle risk model. Additional longitudinal and torsional strength parameters can be derived from anchorage pattern and fastener conditions respectively. The output of the model is the track segment’s Buckling Safety Margin (BSM) which indicates reserve strength of a given length of track against buckling. The BSM can be used to prioritize maintenance activities and perform critical interventions to avoid track buckles and mitigate potential track-buckle-caused derailments.

Bio	J. Riley Edwards, Ph.D., P.E., is an Assistant Professor in the Rail Transportation and Engineering Center (RailTEC) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Vanderbilt University, and his MS and PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research interests are railway infrastructure track system and component design and performance and failure modes associated with infrastructure components. Dr. Edwards has published over 100 conference proceedings and over 70 journal articles related to the design, analysis, performance, and failure modes of railway infrastructure and its components. Riley also serves as the Deputy Associate Director for the National University Rail Center of Excellence, a US DOT transportation center funded by the Federal Railroad Administration.