CERCOM - Development of an Analytic Software Tool for the Evaluation of Innovative Infrastructure Maintenance Methods in the Move Towards Circularity

Implementation of the circular economy and resource efficiency has the potential to significantly tackle the root causes of global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution whilst at the same time providing regenerative design for generations to come. The CEDR funded CERCOM project facilitates a move towards circular...

Design of a concept wedge-shaped self-levelling railway sleeper

Differential railway track settlement can result in ballast voids, leading to sleepers that hang from the rail and are no longer supported by the ballast. These hanging sleepers are damage for track component. As a solution, this paper proposes and investigates a new concept sleeper with a wedge-shaped geometry, intended to stimulate the...

Railway ballast performance: Recent advances in the understanding of geometry, distribution and degradation

Railway ballast performance is dictated by a complex mix of mechanical properties. These effect its performance at the particle level for example in terms of particle degradation, but also at the track system level in terms of settlement and stability. Therefore this paper seeks to develop new understandings of ballast behaviour and identify...

A comparison of earthwork designs for railway transition zones

Railway track transitions are zones where there is an abrupt change in the track-ground structure. They are often the location of rapid track deterioration, which means more frequent track maintenance is needed compared to plain line tracks. With the aim of reducing maintenance, modern transition zone designs use tapered stiffness earthwork...

How Reproducible are Surface Areas Calculated from the BET Equation?

Railway ballast material selection and evaluation: A review

The properties of railway ballast material are affected by the local geologies and climatic environments from which the parent rock is sourced. These factors can make it challenging to select the most appropriate material for railway applications. To address this issue, this paper first reviews the means of ballast selection in complex...

The effect of soil improvement and auxiliary rails at railway track transition zones

Railway track transition zones are areas where there is a sudden change in the track-ground structure. They include changes between ballasted and slab track, bridge approaches, and tunnel entry/exits. They are often the location of rapid track deterioration, and therefore this paper investigates the use of auxiliary rails and soil improvement...

Microwave Susceptibility Observation of Interacting Many-Body Andreev States

Electrostatic charging affects the many-body spectrum of Andreev states, yet its influence on their microwave properties has not been elucidated. We developed a circuit quantum electrodynamics probe that, in addition to transition spectroscopy, measures the microwave susceptibility of different states of a semiconductor nanowire weak link...

Multiscale design of perovskite on silicon band offset barrier tandem solar cells

Realistic limits of perovskite solar cell efficiency

The perovskite solar cell (PSC) is one of the most dramatic inventions in the field of photovoltaics in the last half century. The device has rapidly risen from a few percent to efficiencies of over 24% [1] in little over a decade. This rapid development is due in part to the wide family of perovskite absorber and of electron and hole tranport...

Recent results on carrier selective three terminal perovskite on silicon-IBC tandem solar cells

The most successful high efficiency design, and one of the oldest, is the multi-junction solar cell. There are a range of multijunction solar cell terminal configurations, the specificities of which are reviewed, concluding with noting the increased attention being given to three terminal designs. This introduces a new device design which is the...