Research projects

Sustainable Improvement of Road Traffic Safety By Establishment of the EU-Asia Road Safety Centre of Excellence in Thailand – RoSCOE.

The project lasted from May 2011 through October 2013 and was financed by the European Union. The project partners in alphabetical order were: the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand; Bauhaus-University Weimar, Germany (coordinator); Naresuan University, Phitsanulok, Thailand; Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand; Szechenyi Istvan University, Gyor; Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand. The Hungarian partner received 21 500 EUR financial support from the EU. Contact person: Prof. Dr. Csaba Koren CSc, full professor, telephone: +36 96 613 569, e-mail: koren@sze.hu

The Centre of Excellence was established at Prince Songkla University in Hat Yai, Thailand. Six PhD students (three from Thailand, one from India, Myanmar and Vietnam) were selected from the candidates through an application procedure. Their research topics included road accident data registration, signalized junctions, flyovers and safety of railway crossings. Each of them had a local as well as a European advisor. The latter ones were professors from Szechenyi Istvan Universtiy and the Bauhaus-University Weimar. A number of workshops and training courses were organized under the projects. Also the PhD students and their advisers attended conferences and published papers together.

Austria - Hungary cross-border traffic model

The project is running under the Cross-border Cooperation Programme Austria - Hungary 2007-2013. It is financed through the European Funds for Regional Development (ERDF). Project partners are the Technical University of Vienna (coordinator) and Szechenyi Istvan University, Gyor. The Hungarian partner received 139 200 EUR financial support from the EU. Contact person: Prof. Dr. Csaba Koren CSc, full professor, telephone: +36 96 613 569, e-mail: koren@sze.hu

The aim of this project is to extend the existing cross-border model AT-SK (already including the regions of Vienna, Lower Austria, Burgenland, Bratislava and Trnava) by adding the Hungarian border regions Gyor-Moson-Sorpon, Vas and Zala and parts of Styria in Austria, to support the infrastructure planning process in the area. As a result of the project an integrated, intermodal, cross-border traffic generation and assignment model will be developed which includes the CENTROPE regions in the vicinity of the borders of Austria, Hungary and Slovakia.

Using geogrids for stabilisation of railway ballast

This R&D work would like to reach a new solution for the geometry stabilisation method of railway superstructure with practice expedience. This work is being done in 2012-2014, and is a continuation of the R&D work finished in 2011. Two field test sections were created, one between Kelenföld and Budaörs railway stations, and one between Lébény and Mosonmagyaróvár railway stations. The measurements (geodetic survey and recording car) and their evaluation related to test sections are needed a lot of time because of frequent tamping works. During these procedures multi-level shear box tests are made in the laboratory with several layer structures. Exact determination of the layer structure parameters will be available at the finish of the R&D work in 2014.

Treating of rail head damages as well as development of their maintenance technology (determination of technical specifications considering economic aspects)

On the MÁV railway lines appeared a kind of rail head damage in the summer of 2010, it is related to RCF (Rolling Contact Fatigue); it is called Head Check. Its main characteristic are dense “hairline cracks” in the rail head.

The dangers of this phenomenon: the “hairline cracks” can deepen and get into the rail head, and (a) it can lead to a sudden breaking out of the rail head, or (b) sudden breaking of the whole rail cross section. Due to traffic safety the knowledge of characteristics of 3D geometry of crack surfaces is extremely important, as well as using this data the preventive maintenance works can be planned (rail grinding), which can lengthen the life time of the rails.

The R&D work is related to years 2013 and 2014, in which 3D geometry of crack surfaces is determined by CT records of investigated rail specimens. The R&D work would like to judge the danger of these cracks, and would like to find a correlation between Head Check cracks and other parameters (type of rail cross section, rail material quality, railway geometry, etc.).