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Advanced Sensing Technologies for Sustainable and Resilient Railway Infrastructures

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Fault Diagnosis & Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 March 2026 | Viewed by 907

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Porto, Praça de Gomes Teixeira, 4099-002 Porto, Portugal
Interests: railway engineering; condition monitoring (wayside/onboard); damage identification; machine learning
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Guest Editor
School of Engineering, Polytechnic of Porto, R. Dr. António Bernardino de Almeida 431, 4249-015 Porto, Portugal
Interests: railway infrastructures; train-bridge interaction; dynamic testing of structures; vibration sensors; structural health monitoring; modal identification; model calibration and validation; damage identification; drive-by methodologies; remote inspection; UAVs; computer vision; artificial intelligence
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Divison of Operation and Maintenance Engineering, Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Lulea University of Technology, 97187 Luleå, Sweden
Interests: RAMS data analyst; climate change; transportation infrastructure maintenance modeling; remaining useful life estimation; software reliability; climate change adaptation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Research Unit Steel Structures, Institute of Structural Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria
Interests: railway bridges; structural dynamics; structural health monitoring (SHM); condition assessment of railway assets; track-bridge interaction; damping; digital twin; data-driven assessment of bridges

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Guest Editor
Civil Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA
Interests: civil infrastructure systems; bridges; structural identification; structural monitoring; modal analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues, 

The sustainable transformation of the railway sector requires advanced technologies that enhance the safety, reliability, and efficiency of railways while reducing their environmental impact. Intelligent sensing systems, combined with digital twin platforms, enable real-time monitoring, predictive decision-making, and holistic life-cycle management of railway infrastructure and rolling stock. This Special Issue focuses on innovative research into such technologies and their applications in railway transport and infrastructures to address wheel/rail interaction and improve damage detection, structural and operational resilience, and dynamic performance under varying environmental conditions. It emphasizes climate-resilient design, Building Information Modeling (BIM) integration, monitoring-based structural assessment, and data-driven predictive maintenance strategies, as well as life-cycle cost and sustainability assessment, which are central to ensuring long-term value and minimal ecological footprint.

Guided by the Guest Editors’ expertise in sensing technologies, structural health monitoring, railway engineering, asset management, digital twins, and life-cycle evaluation, this Special Issue welcomes contributions from academia, industry, and infrastructure operators that demonstrate practical and scalable solutions for the future of rail transport.

Topics of Interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Intelligent sensing systems for railway infrastructure and rolling stock;
  • Wheel/rail interface monitoring and damage identification techniques;
  • Digital twin applications for railway system design, operation, and maintenance;
  • Railway resilience under operational and climate-induced actions;
  • Railway dynamics and vibration-based monitoring methods;
  • Building Information Modeling (BIM) for railway infrastructure management;
  • AI and machine learning for predictive maintenance of rail assets;
  • Structural health monitoring of tracks, bridges, tunnels, and vehicles;
  • Climate resilience assessment and adaptation strategies for railways;
  • Life-cycle cost analysis and life-cycle sustainability assessment of railway systems;
  • Remote sensing and unmanned aerial systems for large-scale railway inspection;
  • Energy efficiency and low-carbon strategies for railway operations;
  • Cybersecurity and data integrity in intelligent railway networks.

Dr. Araliya Mosleh
Prof. Dr. Diogo Ribeiro
Dr. Amir Garmabaki
Dr. Andreas Stollwitzer
Prof. Dr. Necati Catbas
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • damage identification techniques
  • digital twin and AI-driven technology for railways
  • sustainable railway infrastructure
  • structural health monitoring
  • resilient rail systems

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

32 pages, 3278 KB  
Review
Advancing Circular Economy Implementation for High-Speed Train Rolling Stocks by the Integration of Digital Twins and Artificial Intelligence
by Lalitphat Khongsomchit and Sakdirat Kaewunruen
Sensors 2025, 25(20), 6473; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25206473 - 20 Oct 2025
Viewed by 660
Abstract
This paper presents a state-of-the-art review on the integration of digital twins and artificial intelligence to advance the circular economy and the 10R principles implementation in high-speed train rolling stock. Rolling stock generates substantial waste at the end of its service life, yet [...] Read more.
This paper presents a state-of-the-art review on the integration of digital twins and artificial intelligence to advance the circular economy and the 10R principles implementation in high-speed train rolling stock. Rolling stock generates substantial waste at the end of its service life, yet the application of the circular economy and the 10R principles (Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recycle, and Recover) in this domain remains limited compared with infrastructure. The review analyses 47 studies retrieved from Web of Science and IEEE Xplore, focusing on digital twin applications in railway infrastructure and rolling stock, and machine learning techniques. Findings reveal that most studies concentrate on data management and efficiency improvement, while only a few explicitly address the circular economy and 10R principles. A comparative analysis of high-waste components against current machine learning applications further highlights critical gaps. To address these, an automated workflow is proposed, incorporating digital twins, artificial intelligence, and the 10R principles to support condition monitoring and sustainable resource management. The study provides insights and research directions to enhance sustainability in railway asset management. Full article
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