Using deeper insight to improve the safety for the railroad industry
Prenscia Solutions partnered with a rail manufacturing client to perform rigorous analyses that identified potential component and system failure modes and severity for troubleshooting. The analyses additionally highlighted consequences and where fail-safe features are needed – providing invaluable answers to improve train safety issues.
The Challenge
Positive Train Control (PTC) system architecture design, integration, and implementation are large and costly tasks. All parts and systems must meet
reliability and safety requirements mandated by manufacturers and districts.
The Solution
We partnered with our client to perform Failure Modes and Effects analyses combined with criticality analyses to identify potential component failure modes and consequence severity — highlighting where fail-safe features were required.
The Fault Tree Analysis identified ways individual and groups of components could fail with unacceptable consequences and provided troubleshooting information. Functional Hazard Analysis identified system functions and evaluated consequences and severity of possible failures.
The Results
By performing comprehensive design reviews and applying our deeper knowledge of developing safety-critical systems, we help ensure PTC is implemented with the highest degree of reliability and that integration meets federally mandated initiatives for its implementation across more than 70,000 miles of track nationwide.
