Floorless closed-loop microdosing for rail friction: a physics-only digital twin on Kuwait city’s blue corridor
Industrial Lubrication and Tribology April 7, 2026 Abdullah Mohammed
A lightweight digital twin for top-of-rail friction management uses physics and closed-loop control, without an artificial friction floor, to maintain wheel-rail friction on curves. The model couples film transport with a saturating friction map and a microdosing controller. When tested on a synthetic loop and then applied to the proposed Kuwait City Blue Line, a configuration of 56 micro-dispensers spaced about 350 m apart over the top 25% of curvature, with a spray footprint of ±80 m and a per-device cap of 8×10⁻⁵ m/axle, kept friction at 0.20 on curves under hot/dry summer conditions. The system achieved 6.1% time-averaged and 10.2% final-hour coverage in the target friction band of 0.22–0.32, concentrating control on sharp curves while respecting lubricant consumption constraints.