I. J. Mathematical Sciences and Computing, 2020, 5, 29-36 Published Online October 2020 in MECS (http://www.mecs-press.org/) DOI: 10.5815/ijmsc.2020.05.03 Copyright © 2020 MECS I.J. Mathematical Sciences and Computing, 2020, 5, 29-36 Reliability Evaluation of High Speed Train Bogie System Based on Stochastic Network Flow Model Vartika Sharma School of Information and Communication Technology, Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, 201-308, India Email: vartika.sharma0510@gmail.com Rajesh Mishra School of Information and Communication Technology, Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, 201-308, India Received: 01 May 2020; Accepted: 13 May 2020; Published: 08 October 2020 Abstract: Bogie is an emblematic complex mechanical as well as electronic part of the current high speed rail system. A small failure of components may lead to a loss of production, casualties and damage of the system. Therefore, security and reliability analysis of bogie system is a predominant task. This paper proposes a stochastic network flow model of bogie system based on the forces applied on the components of the bogie, simultaneously considering the deterioration level and functional correlation of components. At first, a detailed description of structure and functions of the CRH3 bogie is introduced. Then a stochastic network flow model is constructed by analysing the direction of various forces applied on bogie. In the proposed model, edges represent the bogie components and vertices are the transmission channels. The flow over each edge is analysed by the forces it withstands. Finally, a combination method using minimal cut sets is proposed to evaluate the reliability of high speed train bogie system. This paper provides a supportive guidance and practical approach to bogie system designers for efficient operation and maintenance of the bogie. Index Terms: High Speed Train, Bogie, Reliability Evaluation, Minimal Cut sets, Stochastic Flow Networks. 1. Introduction Railway is a prominent transportation system for importing and exporting a huge volume of goods and increasing number of passengers from years. With a great advancement in structure and functioning of railway system, it is essential to provide the safety and reliability as well. The term safety and reliability is directly influenced by the bogie system of today’s high speed rail vehicle. Bogie is an emblematic complex mechanical as well as electronic part of the rail vehicle which is quickly prone to failure. A minor failure in bogie components may direct to causality, loss of investment and system damage. Therefore, the reliability analysis of bogie system is a predominant task and has emerged as a most progressive research area in railway field. There is very limited work available in literature to evaluate the reliability of bogie system. Some of the conventional methods are reliability block diagrams (RBD) [1], Markov analysis [2], Petri nets [3], fault tree analysis [4] and failure mode and effect analysis and derivatives (FMEA) [5]. But these methods are restricted for bogie system reliability evaluation since the bogie is a complex electromechanical system and these are preferable for single component reliability evaluation of a bogie. In [6], the author evaluated the reliability of bogie system based on copula theory. But they have considered the network as a binary system, which is not realistic in real time application. Seo. et.al. [5] used fault tree analysis (FTA) and failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) method to calculate the reliability of metro traction power system based on minimal cut sets. Further, in [7], the author improved the connectivity reliability of bogie using two states i.e. success and failure, but again it was a binary model. After words, in [8], the author proposed a novel method for bogie system reliability evaluation using complex network theory. They have described the three types of connections among bogie components as electrical, mechanical and information connection. In order to evaluate the system reliability, they have introduced the concept on network agglomeration. Most of the papers existing in literature considers the bogie system as binary but in practical scenario, all the components cannot be fully functional over time, their capacity degrades on various levels to complete failure. Hence, in this paper, the authors have presented the bogie system as a stochastic network