A holistic approach to railway engineering design using a simulation framework

Simulators have become frequently used tools in railway infrastructure design. However, most of them could be improved by adding capabilities to increase their productivity. In this paper, we propose a simulation framework in the field of railway infrastructure design, which allows to increase the productivity of simulators by integrating as many aspects of the design process as possible. Also, we state that new generation simulators should be capable of generating and evaluating new solutions by themselves. The framework follows a holistic approach, focusing on four main issues: a) trade-off between accuracy and complexity; b) automatic generation and simulation of solutions; c) taking into account all parts in the design process (e.g. normative); and d) integrating expert's knowledge and optimization metrics. A case study is provided through a real-world simulator of railway overhead air switches. The simulator is analyzed from the point of view of the proposed framework, indicating how the different layers are fulfilled. Finally, the usability and productivity of the simulator is demonstrated performing an evaluation using different study cases. The evaluation shows how a high number of scenarios are simulated, evaluated, and rated using optimization metrics, in order to find the best solution of the problem's search space.