Railway condition information modelling in a BIM framework for maintenance applications

Railway maintenance management involves various interventions that, considering safety and use needs, require an integrated approach for supporting decisions. Defining an infrastructure digital twin can represent an efficient basis to implement management processes. BIM, offering a simplified and realistic digitalized model, may ensure immediate benefits for asset administrators in maintenance management and planning. It would permit to properly maintain full control of infrastructure degradation, to optimize investments and ensure adequate quality levels. In this context, a preliminary procedural framework for modelling railway condition information in an I-BIM environment is proposed, using specific survey data acquired by scheduled diagnostic trains. The authors developed customized routines and scripts to elaborate rail track geometry attributes (with real-time checks of the dynamic effects on the track) and simplify asset quality evaluation for the administrators. This may suggest a novel vision and framework to support maintenance management procedures in future developments of the overall approach.