A CQUniversity project team is conducting research that will help increase the life cycle of railway tracks thanks to half a million dollars in funding.

The team from the Centre for Railway Engineering has received $544,758 from the Australasian Centre for Rail Innovation in a project that is expected to continue for three and a half years.

The project leader, associate professor Maksym Spiryagin said railway track structures are under strain from the introduction of powerful, modern types of locomotives designed to pull heavy-haul trains.

"We are advancing our computer simulation methodologies to understand the behaviour of locomotives used for heavy-haul trains, in order to determine the best possible driving strategies each locomotive should use,” Spiryagin said.

"The project will investigate the impact of increasing locomotive traction and braking forces, provide insight into track damage prevention and focus on the development of proper maintenance strategies.”

Maksym Spiryagin's project team includes chief investigators Professor Peter Wolfs, Professor Colin Cole, Dr Nirmal Mandal and Dr Yan Quan Sun.

The team is also joined by Dr Qing Qu, a recent CQUniversity PhD graduate.