An approach for condition monitoring of rolling stock sub-systems: A

case study on HVAC

Dammika Seneviratne1 , Unai Martínez-de-Estarrona2, Juan Carlos Sánchez2, and Diego
Galar1,2

1 Division of Operation and Maintenance Engineering, Luleå University of Technology,

Sweden, dammika.seneviratne@ltu.se, diego.galar@ltu.se
2 Tecnalia Research and Innovation, Spain, unai.martinezdeestarrona@tecnalia.com,
jcarlos.sanchez@tecnalia.com, diego.galar@tecnalia.com

Abstract

The condition monitoring of railway rolling stock is becoming vital with the focus of
utilization of the railway transportation. The panning of having railway as an efficient,
reliable, safe and fast mode of transport is paramount for achieving the goal of
sustainable cities concept and reduction of greenhouse gas emission. The high speed
railway systems, both infrastructure and rolling stock, need to be properly monitored
and maintained in a cost effective manner. The approach discussed in this manuscript is
related to the classification of the rolling stock sub systems, identification of the
taxonomies, subsystem failure modes and failure mode diagnosis and prognosis. Many
direct and indirect variables are used in diagnosis and prognosis for the subsystem
condition monitoring. The final focus of the manuscript is to identify the variable
mapping for the condition monitoring of the rolling stock sub systems. Therefore, in this
manuscript, a HVAC (heating ventilation and air conditioning) system of the passenger
train is considered as a case study.

Keywords — Condition monitoring, Diagnostic, Prognosis, Maintenance engineering,

Asset management, Event detection, Preventive maintenance, Railway engineering.

1. Introduction
The trend towards railways are considerably by means of one of the safest mode of
ground transportation, with efficient, cost-effective and performance oriented approach
strongly pushed by political, economic and environmental motivations. Railway
transportation represents an important and strategic benefit for guaranteeing citizens and
goods mobility at reasonable cost, involves a 35 billion €/year and a growing market
with the lower impact transportation mode for carbon emission1. Therefore, railways are
the best candidate to achieve sustainable transport capacity and growth, as long as it can
keep the bound with increasing customers’ expectations, high safety/security levels and
evolution of market demand. While the railways’ impressive technological progress is
evident to all, a lot can still be done in system optimisation and efficiency improvement,
in order to increase substantially their overall competiveness and market share, not only
referring to state of the art high-speed trains, but also to high-capacity conventional
trains. To maintain this position in the public insight, especially on safety excellence,
there are serious efforts need to be taken and lot of challenges should be addressed2,3,4.
Within the railway industry different hazard identifications are observed, for instance
collision, derailment, fire, etc. which are directly involved with rolling stock5,6,7 . The
main parts of addressing these issues is to proper monitoring, maintenance and risk
management. Therefore novel technologies and approaches play an important role in
addressing these issues.

The railway industry is evident in the impressive technological progress over the time, a
lot can still be done in different areas such as, condition monitoring, maintenance
management, efficiency improvement, system optimisation and safety for the increment
of market share, competitiveness and sustainability in conventional trains as well as
state of the art high-speed trains. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
have already brought important innovations to railways by supporting operations
(monitoring and control systems) and maintenance. The current trend is to turning
railways into an Intelligent Transportation System8, using big data technologies
interoperable with rail systems, operators and Community9. The important area where
improvements are needed and can be achieved using advanced ICT solutions is that
related to rolling-stock maintenance and condition monitoring. The objective of
utilization of new technologies is to minimise the probability of a mission-critical fault
occurring during train service, with strong consequences in terms of quality of service
and extra costs, while at the same time keeping maintenance costs as low as possible, in
order to reduce life-cycle spending and improve return of investment.

The rolling stock consists of different sub systems for the required functionality that the
specific rolling stock is designed for. These sub systems are designed and developed to
achieve a specific goal/task or multi goals/tasks within a common system. Therefore, to
develop condition monitoring approach it is necessary to identify the operational
scenario of the sub systems.

The sub systems consist of different subunits, components and parts. Therefore, for
clear understanding of the sub systems, the taxonomies play an important role.
However, define and development of a taxonomy for a whole sub system is a
monumental task. The taxonomy provides a common language focusing on the
functions of the subunits, components and parts and avoiding the semantic difficulties
that stem from the many different ways to describe functions10. Once the taxonomy is
laid for a specific engineering system, a Failure Modes and Effect Analysis (FMEA),
which is known as a systematic procedure for the analysis of a system to identify the
functionality, potential failure modes, their causes and effects on system performance
can be performed. García11 used a reliability centred approach for monitoring the
condition of railway points and used the FMEA to identify the failure modes. However,
FMECA aim to classify the occurrence, the severity and the impact of all possible
failure mechanisms on sub-systems or systems. The aim of using FMECA is to reduce,
or eliminate, the impact of potential failure modes before failures occur. Therefore, this
approach is useful to identify the critical failure modes in rolling stock sub systems, for
instate HVAC system.

There are different research works carried out to monitor the condition of the different
HVAC systems in different industrial settings. Some researchers used physics based
models for monitoring the condition of some of the parts in HVAC. Some of the

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researchers used the data driven models for the same purpose. However, most of these
research is carried out in laboratory environment with known variable sets.

The case study explained in this paper aims at the development of condition monitoring
approach for an existing HVAC system of a rolling stock, where the variable
identification is limited. The rest of this paper is organized as follows: in Section 2, the
current trend for condition monitoring scenario of the rolling stock is explained with
emphasis on maintenance; Section 3 explain the methodology for the proposed
approach. The case study on HVAC sub system is illustrated in Section 4. Section 5 is
used for the analysis results and section 6 discuss the results from the analysis and also
the future direction. Finally, Section 7 provides conclusions.

2. Rolling stock condition monitoring and maintenance

Today, trains are complex systems that perform high quality transportation, with many
integrated sub systems, that are real-time distributed and configurable. The failure of
any of these subsystems can have a significant impact on the service itself, with
apparent decline in performance, which reduces perceived quality and increased costs.
For instance, a sophisticated sensor systems may give wrong information to the
controlling systems performing negative consequences such as delays, passenger
problems, cascading impact on other transport services, and costs to take
countermeasures. In addition, interruptions in the service regularly can cause irregular
traffic conditions, reducing the security and safety of the system.

For these reasons, condition monitoring systems, especially nowcasting and forecasting
systems, have become increasingly important to deal with the more sophisticated
systems and to help the train operators, maintainers and end users. The currently used
architecture for data acquisition of the rolling stock sub systems are illustrated in figure
1. A cloud-supported, wireless sensor network is implemented to capture the data from
the Multifunction Vehicle Bus (MVB) in the train communication network. The data
acquisition is real time and are from the variables related to the critical components of
railway rolling stock. The acquired data is transferred to the online maintenance cloud
where the data is stored and subsequent analysis are performed for nowcasting and
forecasting. The intention is to provide the diagnostics, to maintenance technicians and
train drivers with all relevant data and also the prognostic analysis to maintenance
mangers and designers for the further improvements.

During the diagnostic phase the main maintenance approach is corrective maintenance,
which is performed according to the severity of the situation. However, this must be
avoided due to the high costs associated with the planning of immediate maintenance.
This leads to another strategy aimed at preventing the fault occurrence and move
towards the planned maintenance. Scheduled maintenance is currently the most
common solution, but reduces the useful life of components due to early replacement,
and often involves unnecessary maintenance, as they are pre-programmed in accordance
with the prior criteria. Increasing time interval for replacement or maintenance increases
the likelihood of failure.

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The next step is to move to preventive maintenance, try to estimate the likelihood of the
failure and adjust maintenance actions accordingly. This strategy allows for a major
reduction of maintenance costs with limited additional costs of implementation. The
problem with the preventive maintenance is that, it can be achieved by only the reliable
prognosis results. However, to achieve this reforming, designing and development of
the sub systems with occupying the necessary sensor systems is a must. On the other
hand in sub system level, the embedded intelligent systems will be also useful.
Cloud

Communication
infrastructure

Analytics

Vehicle equipment

Planning
Maintenance

Figure 1. Cloud-based condition monitoring for railway rolling stock

3. Methodology for proposed approach

For the condition monitoring of railway rolling stock sub systems, potential failure
modes related to sub systems’ subunits, components and parts need to be identified.
Before analysing the failures, the functionality of the sub system is analysed and a
related taxonomy need to be developed. The variations in design complexity and
available data in the rolling stock subsystems will generally dictate the analysis
approach to be used. There are two primary approaches for accomplishing an FMECA.
One is the hardware approach which lists individual hardware items and analyses their
possible failure modes. The other is the functional approach which recognizes that every
item is designed to perform a number of functions that can be classified as outputs. The
outputs are listed and their failure modes analysed. For complex systems, a combination
of the functional and hardware approaches may be considered. The FMECA may be
performed as a hardware analysis, a functional analysis, or a combination analysis and
may be initiated at either the highest indenture level and proceed through decreasing
indenture levels (top-down approach) or at the part or assembly level and proceed
through decreasing indenture levels (bottom-up approach) until the FMECA for the
subsystem is complete. The methodology for the proposed approach for condition
monitoring of rolling stock subsystems are illustrated in figure 2.

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 Rolling stock

HVAC
Identify failure modes of Equipment units,
Subunits, Components and Parts based on
the Taxonomy Identification of the system for the analysis

Analyze failure effects / causes Survey for the functionality of the system

Classify failure effects by severity Survey for the functionality of the system
Taxonomy

Identification of the Equipment units,

Perform criticality calculations Subunits, Components and Parts

Rank failure mode criticality Complete Taxonomy creation

FMECA Analysis
(failure mode
identification)
Determine critical items Identify the measurements for the detection
of failures
Identify means of failure detection, isolation
and compensating provisions Identify the available variables and
Relate available parameters in the system
variable with failure
Document the analysis. Summarize modes Exploration of possible data extraction form
uncorrectable design areas, identify special variables
controls necessary to mitigate risk.
Identification of possible modeling Sensitivity analysis for the detection of failure
Make recommendations methods for failure identification modes from available variables

Analysis of indirect monitoring of failure

Follow up on corrective action Critical system, sub-system, modes through variables
implementation / effectiveness component identification

Diganosis/Progonosis

Condition Maintenance
Monitoring Planning

Figure 2. Proposed approach

3.1 Taxonomy creation

The functional decomposition of an existing engineering system requires a stopping

point in order to maintain some level of control over the size of the data and the
meaning of the functions. Decomposition of the system into simpler sub systems is
necessary for analysis, but it is difficult to know the point at which further
decomposition is no longer beneficial. A taxonomy of elemental functions solves this
problem. A taxonomy will provide a uniform stopping point for most of the
decomposition techniques. However, developing this taxonomy for an engineering
system is a monumental task; this case study concentrates on a mechanical system (i.e.
HVAC). This taxonomy provides a common language for the analysts to discuss
functions, avoiding the semantic difficulties that stem from the many different ways to
describe functions. Furthermore this taxonomy enables the development of function–
based software because it reduces the information content to a manageable subset. After

5
analysing the functions described in Collins’ work12, and considering consumer
products such as an automobile, a drill and a lawn mower, four basic types of functions
were derived. These are related to the concepts of Motion, Power / Matter, Control, and
Enclosure.

3.2 FMECA

In this analysis the two main approaches of FMECA, namely hardware approach and
functional approach are used. The hardware approach is normally used when hardware
items can be uniquely identified from schematics, drawings, and other engineering and
design data. The hardware approach is normally utilized in a part level up fashion
(bottom-up approach); however, it can be initiated at any level of indenture and progress
in either direction. Each identified failure mode shall be assigned a severity
classification which will be utilized during design to establish priorities for corrective
actions.

The functional approach is normally used when hardware items cannot be uniquely
identified or when system complexity requires analysis from the initial indenture level
downward through succeeding indenture levels. The functional approach is normally
utilized in an initial indenture level down fashion (top down approach); however, it can
be initiated at any level of indenture and progress in either direction. Each identified
failure mode shall be assigned a severity classification which will be utilized during
design to establish priorities for corrective actions.

Each single item failure, as its effects are analysed, is to be considered the only failure
in the system. Where a single item failure is non-detectable, the analysis shall be
extended to determine the effects of a second failure, which in combination with the
first undetectable failure, could result in a catastrophic or critical failure condition.
Passive and multiple failures which may result in catastrophic or critical conditions shall
also be identified. When safety, redundant, or back-up items exist, failure assumptions
shall be broadened to include the failure conditions which resulted in the need for the
safety, redundant, or back-up item. All single failure points identified during the
analyses shall be uniquely identified on the FMECA worksheets to maintain visibility of
these failure modes.

Severity classifications are assigned to each failure mode and each item to provide a
basis for establishing corrective action priorities. First priority shall be given to the
elimination of the identified Category I (catastrophic) and Category 11 (critical) failure
modes. Where the loss of input or output at a lower indenture level are critical to the
operational success of a higher indenture level, action shall be taken to eliminate or
control the identified failure modes. When identified Category I and Category II failure
modes cannot be eliminated or controlled to acceptable levels for the procuring activity,
alternative controls and recommendations shall be presented to the procuring activity.

Based on the severity the risk analysis is performed to identify the potential failures
modes which that are critical. The risk priority number (RPN) is calculated to analyse
the criticality.

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 RPN= Severity*Occurrence*Detection………………………..(1)

The RPN value for each potential system problem is used to compare issues within
analysis, corrective actions may be recommended or required to reduce the risk of
occurrence of failure, increase the likelihood of prior detection so that it could be
rectified at early stage and hence reduce severity of the failure effect.

4. Case study on HVAC sub system

Case study is conducted on a HVAC system of a high speed passenger train and
FMECA technique is applied to the HVAC after defining the taxonomy. For the
analysis, the system breakdown details for the HVAC of a particular fleet is selected
and maintenance work orders and OEM data is taken.

4.1 HVAC sub system

The passenger HVAC system consists of four main sub units. The air condition system,
heating system, ventilation system and overall control of the total system. The system
consists of 132 components and 22 parts. The air-conditioning system is mounted on the
celling of the passenger compartment and ducting system is installed to distribute the air
to the compartment. Heat is generated by electrical heaters mounted at various parts of
the compartment. The total arrangement of the HVAC in rolling stock is shown in
figure 3.

Figure 3. HVAC sub system

4.2 Assessing the HVAC sub-systems: Taxonomy and FMECA analysis

2.2.1 Taxonomy:

The taxonomy hierarchy used (adapted from ISO 14224) to create the taxonomy for the
case study is shown in figure 4. Levels 1 to 5 represent a high-level categorization that
relates to industries and plant application regardless of the equipment units (see level 6)

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involved. This is because an equipment unit (e.g. air conditioning unit) can be used in
many different industries and plant configurations and, for analyzing the
failure/reliability/maintainability of similar equipment, it is necessary to have the
operating context.

(1)
Industry
Use/ Location

(2)
Business category
(3)
Facility/Installation
(4)
Unit/Plant
(5)
Section/System
(6)
Equipment subdivision

Equipment (class/unit)
(7)
Subunit
(8)
Component/Maintainable Item
(9)
Part

Figure 4. Taxonomy (adapted from ISO 14224)

Facility/Installation
Unit/ Plant
(front car)

Section/system
(passenger
compartment
HVAC system) Equipment (Air
conditioning unit)

Subunit
(Compressor) Component
(Valve)

Part (Seal)

Figure 5. HVAC taxonomy

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Levels 6 to 9 are related to the equipment unit (inventory) with the subdivision in lower
indenture levels corresponding to a parent-child relationship. The number of subdivision
levels for the collection of maintenance data depends on the complexity of the
equipment unit and the use of the data. A single instrument might need no further
breakdown, while several levels can be required for a large compressor. The HVAC
taxonomy is shown in figure 5.

2.2.1 Failure mode effect and criticality (FMECA) analysis:

Fault diagnosis for HVAC is challenging because the interactions among components
are complex. A fault may cause variations in variables of different constituent
components, thus making it difficult to localize. The FMECA analysis is performed on
HVAC to identify the failure modes and also to relate complex interactions between
failure modes and fault indicators (system variables in MVB). Failure modes considered
in this work and their relating variables are introduced in figure 6. The variables (both
direct and indirect) are considered as fault indicators since they can reflect impacts of
faults in a more natural and explicit way.

Figure 6. Failure modes and variable relation

5. Results
The proposed approach and analysis show that there are 132 components in the selected
HVAC system. It also consist of 34 sub units and 22 parts which were considered
during the FMECA analysis (see figure 7 (a)). The figure 7 (b) shows the 163 total
failure modes in the HVAC and 40 detectable and 123 undetectable. Figure 7 (c) shows
the variable and failure mode relation. Figure 7 (d) shows the identifiable failures at
each level of the taxonomy.

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 (a) (b)

(c) (d)

Figure 7. (a) Taxonomy distribution, (b) HVAC failure modes failure relation with
taxonomy level (c)Variable and failure mode relation, (d) failure relation with
taxonomy level

6. Discussions:
The results show that there are a number of failure modes which are not related to any
known variable. Therefore, from design point of view, it is needed to install more
sensors to detect the failures. However, there are indirect variable relation with the
failure modes. Hence, using and indirect condition monitoring approach will be useful
in this case.

The condition monitoring system of the future can be seen as an ecosystem where many
heterogeneous networked subsystems cooperate in order to achieve the common goal of
efficient and reliable train operation. The described approach also minimises the
subsystem additional cost, as symptom analysis alarm diagnostics and predictive
diagnostics are mainly implemented in software and its development cost can be
operator, service provider and OEM.

Following prototyping and test results, the approach can be extended to other
subsystems, bringing even higher benefits to the railway operators. A number of
initiatives are in progress which can bring important results in the future. Several
innovative aspects of the defined approach, related diagnostic and prognostic platforms
need further studies for the full understanding of the condition monitoring system that
need to be developed.

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7. Conclusions
Starting from the practices and results achieved in other organizational and industrial
sectors, an innovative approach for a new generation of condition monitoring approach
for railway rolling stock sub systems has been derived.

The described experience was very important in order to define a new platform and
show that it can actually work in the railway environment, bringing significant
improvements. However, some more data acquisition, information gathering,
development and field tests are required in order to achieve a fully engineered product
which can be widely deployed in railway rolling stock sub systems.

Integration with the on board train communication network and cloud-based data
repository through transmission network will enable remote monitoring and alerting in
case of problems, which in turn will contribute to a reduction of any possible impact on
normal operations. This will also help for the proper shop floor planning for the
maintenance of rolling stock.

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