The Gibela Engineering Research Chair, sponsored by the Gibela Rail Transport Consortium as established in 2022 in the Engineering Faculty at Stellenbosch University. The Chair provides research capability to support Gibela in maintaining X’Trapolis Mega trainsets which will be built at the Consortium’s Dunottar factory. Gibela has been contracted to manufacture 600 X’Trapolis Mega trainsets and to support the maintenance of these assets until 2040. Although the Chair is based in the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, expertise is drawn from the collective expertise of all Departments within the Faculty, to create a niche in monitoring applications and asset management technologies for operational Gibela passenger trains.
The activities of the Chair focus on methods to leverage the potential of digital twin technology towards digital services to support decisions in the management and operation of the trains and supporting infrastructure. It is well-known that an appropriate predictive maintenance strategy could spur timely action to repair critical components before costly failures or catastrophic interruptions to rail safety or rail services. One of the most prominent disadvantages of predictive maintenance is the level of skill required to interpret events from monitoring data. The gathering of large quantities of data does not in itself lead to competence, insight or decision support. In fact, large volumes of sophisticated data and analytics can inhibit the adoption of monitoring approaches in practice as they require specialist skill to interpret and use. As such, digital services will be designed by gleaning from the systems design process, with a specific value deliverable in mind from the onset.
The ethos of the Chair will mimic the Gibela brand persona, which is people centric, optimistic and future focused whilst striving for precision in our work to achieve impacts in the local and international ambit of rail research. The Chair will scope research and training assets to support Gibela in their aim to offer safety, comfort, speed and reliability for rail commuters on its new trains.
Contact:
Prof Annie Bekker