Статті в журналах з теми "Railroad tracks Foundations"

Plane-strain contact analysis is presented for compositionally graded materials with power-law strain hardening. The half-space, y≤0, is modeled as an incompressible, nonlinear elastic material. The effective stress, σe, and the effective total strain, εe, are related through a power-law model, σe=K0εeμ;0<μ≤min(1,(1+k)). The material property K0 changes with depth, |y|, as K0=A|y|k;A>0,0≤|k|<1. This material description attempts to capture some features of the plane-strain indentation of elastoplastic or steady-state creeping materials that show monotonically increasing or decreasing hardness with depth. The analysis starts with the solution for the normal line load (Flamant’s problem) and continues with the rigid, frictionless, flat-strip problem. Finally, the general solution of normal indentation of graded material by a convex, symmetric, rigid, and frictionless two-dimensional punch is given. Applications of the present results range from surface treatments of engineering structures, protective coatings for corrosion and fretting fatigue, settling of beam type foundations in the context of soil and rock mechanics, to bioengineering as well as structural applications such as contact of railroad tracks.

The natural frequency of an infinite railroad track was first determined by Timoshenko as ωR = √k/m, where k is the constant for the massless Winkler foundation and m is the mass per unit length of the rail. The natural frequencies of the track are determined here by modeling the track as a beam resting on a 3-D inertial elastic layer. It is shown that the mass of the supporting foundation has a significant effect on the natural frequencies of a railroad track. Finally, the concept of “added mass” is introduced in order to determine the natural frequency in a desired mode of vibration, by modeling the track as a beam on the massless Winkler foundation and adding the mass of the foundation to the beam.

The initial support and tie foundation problems of a railroad track built in 1974 to carry axle loads 21% greater than presently (1998) permitted under interchange laws at a speed of 88 km/h are presented. Some of the concerns related to and affecting the final rehabilitation that resulted in a final satisfactory performance are documented. The foundation engineer's interest is directed to the ballast, the tie, and to a lesser extent the rail's behaviour. Cobble-sized (75-150 mm) river gravel was used as the source for the ballast in the rehabilitation. The ballast's satisfactory performance has permitted the establishment of guidelines for future use of this type source of material where suitable quarried rock is not available. The railroad's satisfactory performance after rehabilitation has proven that the design concepts involving 36 t (40 tons) axle loads operating on 60 kg/m (119 lb/yd) continuously welded rail, concrete ties, and ballast manufactured by crushing from a river aggregate were achievable.Key words: railway track, concrete ties, ballast aggregate, aggregate, crushed face, rail, 36 t (40 tons) axle loads.

Railway tracks are conventionally built on compacted ballast and structural fill layers placed above the natural (subgrade) foundation. However, during train operations, track deteriorations occur progressively due to ballast degradation. The associated track deformation is usually accompanied by a reduction in both load bearing capacity and drainage, apart from imposing frequent track maintenance. Suitable ground improvement techniques involving plastic inclusions (e.g., geogrids) and energy absorbing materials (e.g., rubber products) to enhance the stability and longevity of tracks have become increasingly popular. This paper presents the outcomes from innovative research and development measures into the use of plastic and rubber elements in rail tracks undertaken at the University of Wollongong, Australia, over the past twenty years. The results obtained from laboratory tests, mathematical modelling and numerical modelling reveal that track performance can be improved significantly by using geogrid and energy absorbing rubber products (e.g., rubber crumbs, waste tire-cell and rubber mats). Test results show that the addition of rubber materials can efficiently improve the energy absorption of the structural layer and also reduce ballast breakage. Furthermore, by incorporating the work input parameters, the energy absorbing property of the newly developed synthetic capping layer is captured by correct modelling of dilatancy. In addition, the laboratory behavior of tire cells and geogrids has been validated by numerical modelling (i.e., Finite Element Modelling-FEM, Discrete Element—DEM), and a coupled DEM-FEM modelling approach is also introduced to simulate ballast deformation.

This article traces the process by which people in the United States embraced the Continental Divide as a geographic feature of North America in the late 1860s. Building on recent work in environmental history, Civil War memory, geography, and the history of nationalism, the essay explains how accurate mapping alone did not reveal the Continental Divide. Instead, the divide’s conceptualization also depended on Americans’ history of thinking about the Rockies as a political boundary, southern secession, and the building of the transcontinental railroad. Many Americans found in that railroad’s construction solace for a nation recovering from the Civil War, and they cast themselves as conquering nature to unite the nation. Railroad boosters and passengers consecrated the Continental Divide as a symbol of national unity and an icon of obstacles overcome. In a nation trying to overcome its sectional division between North and South, aspirations for reunification formed a foundation for emphasizing the continent’s most prominent feature that separates East and West.

The roadbed is the most deformable and most heterogeneous segment of the railroad track foundation, which states the principal factor deciding the efficiency of the street, and the primary factor behind deterioration of path and its components, leading to the rise in the expense of current maintenance. Notwithstanding the expanding dynamic effect of trains on the railroad framework resulting from heavy haul transportation system, this issue turns out to be especially significant. In this paper, an examination is made of the issue of degradation and giving the strength to the track foundation with an increased axial load on the track, with a strict attention on examination of the excitation mechanisms of cyclic effects and the procedure of their damping by the soil environment. The principal kinds of deformations and defects are portrayed; the mechanisms and explanations behind their occurrence are studied in this paper. Much consideration is paid to the investigation of soil degradation procedures of the roadbed under the dynamic effect of heavy trains. Different components of the roadbed are taken into account, which require support for operation under substantial heavy traffic and huge axial loads. The advanced strategies and structures of strengthening the roadbed are portrayed, the utilization of which permits to build the proficiency of the heavy haul transportation. Taking everything into account, extensive research is carried out to address the issue of ensuring the stability of the roadbed in the association of heavy haul traffic.

We examine vibrations that arise when a moving, vibrating load passes over an infinite railroad track lying on a Winkler foundation. Solutions are presented for both moving and stationary vibrating loads as a function of both the mass and driving frequency of the load as well as the physical properties of the track. For a stationary vibrating load, resonance occurs at lower driving frequencies as the mass of the load increases. For a moving vibrating load, resonance occurs at lower driving frequencies when the velocity and/or mass of the load increases.

Railroad track transitions such as bridge approaches may experience differential movements due to variations in track stiffness; impact loads due to train speed and excessive vibration; ballast settlement from fouling, degradation, or both; tie–ballast contact condition and gap; and settlement of fill, subgrade, and foundation layers. A research study completed recently at the University of Illinois focused on identifying the major causes of this differential movement and implementing suitable rehabilitation measures to mitigate recurrent problems with settlement and geometry. Transient and permanent deformation trends were observed in track substructure layers at two instrumented bridge approaches along the Amtrak Northeast Corridor. Multidepth deflectometer systems installed through crossties successfully recorded both permanent (plastic) and transient deformations of individual track substructure layers. Strain gauges mounted on the rail effectively measured vertical wheel loads applied during train passage and monitored the support conditions under the instrumented crossties. Track settlement (or permanent deformation) data revealed that the ballast layer was the primary source of differential movement contributing to recurrent settlement and geometry problems. Transient layer deformations recorded under train passage were higher in the ballast than in any other substructure layer. Transient displacement and wheel load data were consistently higher at near-bridge locations than at open-track locations. Rail-mounted strain gauges indicated that load amplification levels were significantly higher at near-bridge locations than at open-track locations.

Over the past two decades, a rolling deflection measurement system aiming to continuously measure the track modulus has been under development at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln under the sponsorship of the Federal Railroad Administration. This system measures the relative vertical distance (referred to as Yrel) between the rail surface and the rail/wheel contact plane at a distance of 1.22 m from the nearest wheel to the sensor system. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of using the Yrel measurement as an indicator of the track modulus for various rail foundation conditions. To meet this objective, a detailed finite element model capable of simulating moving loads and track modulus variation was developed. One of the unique contributions of this study is that it presents a comprehensive study of the Yrel–track modulus relationship by defining more realistic support conditions using discrete spring supports and by simulating the stochastic nature of the track modulus along a 160-m track length. The numerical model was employed to examine the accuracy of estimating the track modulus using the Yrel measurements when foundation stiffness is variable. Furthermore, the correlation between the statistical properties of the track modulus and Yrel was studied over different track segment lengths.

The paper is devoted to the modification of the dynamic behavior model of a flat orthotropic element under shock and vibrational impacts. The impacts were caused by solid cylindrical body for the case of ballastless railway construction. The suggested model allows simulating the element deformation in the upper structure of the ballast-free design track. The propagation of elastic waves moving with finite speeds, orthotropic properties of the foundation slab, which allow optimally selecting rod reinforcement are taken into account. The obtained analytical and graphical results make it possible to assess the influence of properties of the reinforced concrete slab, the underframe speed, the presence of defects in wheel sets or rail bars, as well as the characteristics of the technical content of the track section.

Rotating structures can be easily encountered in engineering practice such as turbines, helicopter propellers, railroad tracks in turning positions, and so on. In such cases, it can be seen as a moving beam that rotates around a fixed axis. These structures commonly operate in hot weather; as a result, the arising temperature significantly changes their mechanical response, so studying the mechanical behavior of these structures in a temperature environment has great implications for design and use in practice. This work is the first exploration using the new shear deformation theory-type hyperbolic sine functions to carry out the free vibration analysis of the rotating functionally graded graphene beam resting on the elastic foundation taking into account the effects of both temperature and the initial geometrical imperfection. Equations for determining the fundamental frequencies as well as the vibration mode shapes of the beam are established, as mentioned, by the finite element method. The beam material is reinforced with graphene platelets (GPLs) with three types of GPL distribution ratios. The numerical results show numerous new points that have not been published before, especially the influence of the rotational speed, temperature, and material distribution on the free vibration response of the structure.

Objective: To report on “Railway track” module which is included in international educational program of supplementary education “Master of infrastructure and operation of rapid and high-speed railroads”. Methods: Methodological foundations of learning materials’ selection were considered, including the conducted survey of home and international experience in engineering, construction and operation of high-speed networks. Moreover, FGBOU VO PGUPS participation in research and training program of OAO “RZhD” high-speed traffic realization was characterized. Results: The experience in project realization was presented by the international creative team, which included organizations and higher educational establishments of Russia, Ukraine and France. The difficulties connected with the difference in the normative base and different methodological approaches of academic schools were analyzed, which occurred in the process of creating educational learning materials by the developers and teachers The emphasis was placed on audience make-up diversity both in the level of audience competence and the scope of specialties. The review of events related to participants’ training in Beijing Transport University of People’s Republic of China was conducted. Practical importance: The conclusion was made on the demand for supplementary educational program among students and experts.

The paper describes experimental activity carried out at the Department of Railway Engineering and Track Management of the Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Žilina. It focuses on monitoring moisture changes in individual structural layers of the railway track body and its subgrade, performed on the railroad model, (1:1 scale). The Introduction characterizes the experimental stand models of the Department, used for monitoring the moisture changes in the structural layers. The second part of the paper focuses on the characteristics of the moisture determination method - time reflectometry (TDR method), and on the calibration of TRIME PICO IPH T3 probes for real materials of the experimental stand DRETM (crushed aggregate, fr. 0 / 31.5 mm - protective layer, crushed aggregate, fr. 0/63 mm - embankment, clay with the addition of river gravel – foundation). The calibration was a substantial prerequisite for the subsequent humidity monitoring of the railway models. The next part of the paper presents the recorded moisture values of the structural layer materials, built in the measuring profiles of the experimental stand DRETM, measured before and during the winter period 2017/2018. The Conclusion evaluates the measured values and the determination of the input moisture values that will be used for the numerical modeling of the thermal regime of subgrade structure by the SoilVision software.

The need for shared freight and passenger rail corridors in the United States is increasing due to the growing demand for regional and intercity passenger transport. Several researches have been conducted on reducing the risk of freight train accidents, but little research has been done on the risk of passenger train accidents. The accident rates of passenger trains have declined in the past two decades; however, faster and more frequent passenger train services require even higher safety standards, and therefore further reduction to the risk of passenger train accidents is needed. The research presented in this paper analyzed the passenger train accidents in the United States using the Federal Railroad Administration train accident database to understand the trend of passenger train accident rates, the frequency and severity of different types of accidents, and to explore the major factors that cause them. Derailments and collisions were identified as the most significant types of passenger train accidents, and track failures and human factors, respectively, were the primary causes of those accidents. Accidents caused due to human factors and train operations such as train speed violations and failure to obey signals are often high-consequence accidents and therefore pose the greatest risk. Higher risk infrastructure-related factors include track geometry defects and broken rails or welds. This study on passenger train accidents provides a solid foundation for further research on improving the safety of passenger rail and shared-use rail corridors.

The train is a mode of transportation that offers characteristics and advantages because of its ability to transport passengers and goods in bulk, efficiently, sparingly on space use, and safely. The comfort and safety of the train cannot be separated from the structure of the train and the existing rail structure. A railway system generally consists of train buildings (carriages) and railroads. The rail structure consists of the rail itself, under which there are railway sleepers and a foundation or ballast. The sleeper serves as the foundation on which the rail rests. The materials used for sleepers are of various kinds, such as wood, steel, or reinforced concrete. Concrete or reinforced concrete with tension steel helps receive a load from the train tracks and wheels. Therefore, the sleepers can withstand impact loads. This study aims to analyze the effect of impact loads and sleeper reinforcement variations on railway sleepers’ resistance. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is used to model and analyze the sleeper performance after impact loading. The variety of reinforcement used is 4, 6, and 8 rods with 7-type formations. The results that can be obtained are in the form of stress, load, and displacement values. The value of the stress on the whole system is 1860 MPa. The maximum load value is 245.33 kN for variations of 6 reinforcements formations 1. The displacement value is 14.03 mm. The simulation results and graphs show that the correct arrangement and number of reinforcements can increase the resistance of the railway sleeper.

The railway infrastructure has very specific constraints that lead to the need of maximizing of the availability of infrastructure, with high levels of safety and quality, associated with an optimized cost. Having said this, it is essential to understand the methods behind the inspection and monitoring of existing railway infrastructures, the way of processing their data, as well as existing rehabilitation solutions. The present work begins with a brief description of the components of the ballast track and its operation, the different types of actions to which it is subjected to and the degradation mechanisms at the level of the ballast layer, substructure and transition zones, with particular attention being given to the latter since it is a section of the road with singularities that lead to a more pronounced degradation. The rehabilitation solutions addressed in this work start from a slight attack of the road (which can be considered as a small intervention) until a complete renovation of the road with reinforcement of the foundation. Based on the previously mentioned concepts, it is possible to define which variables, criteria and respective weights are more important and influence the investment decision (on the rehabilitation of the railway infrastructure), thus enabling the methodologies of multi-criteria analysis applied to these variables. Currently, the economic factor is one of the variables that influence the most in decision making due to the lack of investment capacity. Mainly because of this factor and sometimes even without performing an analysis, one of the common practices is the restriction of circulation velocity rather than maintenance or rehabilitation measures. The case study used is an excerpt from a railroad in Portugal, where the entire described process will be applied and consequently analysed. Therefore, this work intends to contribute to a more efficient planning of the railway maintenance and rehabilitation measures, based on a better use of the data resulting from the track inspection, through a multi-criteria analysis.

AbstractThe type of subgrade of a railroad foundation is vital to the overall performance of the track structure. With the train speed and tonnage increase, as well as environmental changes, the evaluation and influence of subgrade are even more paramount in the railroad track structure performance. A geomechanics classification for subgrade is proposed coupling the stiffness (resilient modulus) and permanent deformation behaviour evaluated by means of repeated triaxial loading tests. This classification covers from fine- to coarse-grained soils, grouped by UIC and ASTM. For this achievement, we first summarize the main models for estimating resilient modulus and permanent deformation, including the evaluation of their robustness and their sensitivity to mechanical and environmental parameters. This is followed by the procedure required to arrive at the geomechanical classification and rating, as well as a discussion of the influence of environmental factors. This work is the first attempt to obtain a new geomechanical classification that can be a useful tool in the evaluation and modelling of the foundation of railway structures.

Abstract Railway-track substructure is the foundation of the railway-track infrastructure and consists of four major components: ballast, sub-ballast, subgrade and drainage. Safety and performance of the track infrastructure, to a large degree, depends on the performance of the track substructure. Adequate support from the track substructure is the most critical element needed for good track performance. When properly constructed and maintained, the ballasted track is the most cost-effective track structure for railway operations, especially for heavy-haul freight operations. Good track-substructure support is characterized by good drainage and strong resistance of the ballast, sub-ballast and subgrade layers to excessive deformation and failures under repeated dynamic wheel loads. As the track substructure plays such important roles, research concerning track substructure has been broad and extensive around the world, with many universities and research institutes conducting various studies and investigations. This paper provides an overview of the recent research conducted at Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI), a subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads (AAR), in the following areas: ballast mud pumping and its effects on track performance, remediation of subgrade mud pumping, remediation of ballast pockets, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) for inspecting track substructure, and development of software tools with focus on track-substructure functions and management.

This work is devoted to the validation of a computational dynamics approach previously developed by the authors for the simulation of moving loads interacting with flexible bodies through arbitrary contact modeling. The method has been applied to the modeling and simulation of the coupled dynamics of railroad vehicles moving on deformable tracks with arbitrary undeformed geometry. The procedure presented makes use of a fully arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) description of the long flexible solid (track) whose mechanical properties may be captured using a dynamics-preserving selection of modes, e.g., via a Padé approximation of a transfer function. The modes accompany the contact interaction rather than being referred to a fixed frame, as it occurs in the finite-element floating frame of reference formulation. In the method discussed in this paper, the mesh, which moves through the long flexible solid, is defined in the trajectory coordinate system (TCS) used to describe the dynamics of the set of bodies (vehicle) that interact with the long flexible structure. For this reason, the selection of modes can be focused on the preservation of the dynamics of the structure instead of having to ensure the structure's static displacement convergence due to the motion of the load. In this paper, the validation of the so-called trajectory coordinate system/moving modes (TCS/MM) method is performed in four different aspects: (a) the analytical mechanics approach is used to obtain the equations of motion in a nonmaterial volume, (b) the resulting equations of motion are compared to the classical discretization procedures of partial differential equations (PDE), (c) the suitability of the moving modes (MM) to describe deformation due to variable-velocity moving loads, and (d) the capability of the finite nonmaterial volume to describe the dynamics of an infinitely long flexible body. Validation (a) is completely general. However, the particular example of a moving load applied to a straight beam resting on a Winkler foundation, with known semi-analytical solution, is used to perform validations (b), (c), and (d).

The elaborate cross-media spectacle, ‘Australian Idol,’ ostensibly lays bare the process of creating a pop star. Yet with so much made visible, much is rendered opaque. Specifically, ‘Idol’ is defined by the use of carefully-tuned strategies of publicity and promotion that create, shape and reshape a series of ‘authentic celebrities’ – pop stars whose emergence is sanctified through a seemingly open process of public ratification. Yet, Idol’s main actor is the music industry itself which uses contestants as vehicles for crafting intimate, long-term relationships with consumers. Through an analysis of the process through which various contestants in ‘Australian Idol’ are promoted and sold, it becomes clear that these populist icons are emblematic of an industry reinventing itself in a media environment that presents remarkable challenges and surprising opportunities. Curiously, the debates, strategies and motivations of the public relations industry have received little sustained attention in popular music studies. While much has been written about the contradictions between the rhetoric of rebellion and the complicated realities of corporate success (Frank; Negus), less has been written about the evolution of specific kinds of publicity and the strategies that shape their use in the music industry. This is surprising given the foundational role of public relations strategies within the culture industries generally and the music industry in particular. Specifically, what Turner et. al. define as ‘the promotional culture’ is central to the production and marketing of mainstream popular music. The ‘Idol’ phenomenon offers a rich opportunity to examine how the mainstream of the popular music industry uses distinct and novel marketing strategies in the face of declining sales of compact discs, an advertising environment that is extraordinarily crowded with all manner of competing messages, a steady rate of trade in digital song files and ever more effective competition from video games and DVDs. The ‘Idol’ phenomenon has proved to be a bundle of highly successful strategies for making money from popular music. Selling CDs seems to be almost ancillary to the phenomenon, acting as only one profit centre among many. Indeed, we can track the progress and deployment of specific strategies for shaping the creation of what has become a series of musical celebrities from the start of the first series of ‘Australian Idol’ through a continuous process of strategic publicity. The Attention Economy It has been somewhat hysterically estimated that the average resident of Sydney might be presented with around 3000 commercial messages a day (Lee). It is this kind of communication environment that makes account planners go weak in the knees in both paralysing anxiety and genuine excitement. Many have taken to paying people to go to bars, cafes and clubs to talk up the relative merits of a product to complete strangers in the guise of casual conversation. Similarly, commercial buskers have recently appeared on City Trains to proclaim the virtues of the wares they’ve been contracted to hawk. One can imagine ‘Cockles and Mussels’ has been updated as ‘MP3 Players and Really Cool Footwear.’ These phenomena are variously referred to as ‘viral,’ ‘tipping point,’ ‘word of mouth’ or ‘whisper’ marketing. (Gladwell; Godin; Henry; Lee; Rosen) Regardless of what you call it, the problem inspiring these promotional chats and arias is the same: advertisers can no longer count on getting and holding our attention. As Davenport and Beck, Brody and even Nobel Prize winning economist Herbert Simon have noted, the more taxed public attention gets, the more valuable it becomes. By most industry accounts, the attention economy is an established reality. It represents a significant shift of emphasis away from traditional methods of reaching consumers, instead inspiring new thinking about how to create lasting, flexible and evolving relationships with target audiences. The attention economy is a complicated and often contradictory response to a media environment that appears less and less reliable and to consumers who behaviour is often poorly understood, even mysterious (Elliott and Jankel-Elliott). This challenging backdrop, however, is only the beginning for a seemingly beleaguered music industry. Wherever one looks, from the rise of the very real threat of global piracy to the expansion of the video game industry to mobile phones and hand held players to increasing amounts of money spent on DVDs and ring tones, selling CDs has become almost a sideline. The main event is the profitable use and reuse of the industry’s vast stores of intellectual property through all manner of media, most which didn’t exist ten years ago. Indeed, the ‘Idol’ phenomenon shows us how the music industry has been incorporating its jealously-guarded intellectual property and familiar modes of industrial self-presentation into existing media environments to build long-term relationships with consumers through television, radio, DVDs, CDs, the internet and mobile phones. Further, ‘Idol’s’ producers have supplemented more traditional models of communication by taking direct and explicit account of how and where audiences use a wide variety of media. The broad range of opportunities to participate in ‘Idol’ is central to its success. It demonstrates a willingness on the part of producers to accept the necessity of bending somewhat to the audience’s existing and evolving uses of the media. In short, they are simply not all that fussy about how participation actually happens so long as it does. Producers allow for many kinds of participation in order to constantly offer more specific and more active levels of involvement. ‘Idol’ has transformed consumer relationships within the music industry by coaxing into being ever more intimate, active and reciprocal relationships over the course of the contest by encouraging increasingly specific acts by consumers to complete a continual series of transactions. The Use and Reuse of Celebrity In many quarters, ‘Australian Idol’ has become a byword for bullshit. The competition seems rigged and the contestants are not seen as ‘real’ musicians in large part because their experience appears to be so transparent and so transparently commercial. As the mythology of the music industry has traditionally had it, deserving pop stars are established as celebrities through what is a more or less a linear progression. Early success is based on a carefully constructed sense of authentic cultural production. Credibility is established through a series of contestable affiliations to ostensibly organic music cultures, earned through artistic development and the hard slog of touring and practice (see Maxwell 118). The fraught possibilities of mainstream success continually beckon to ‘real’ musicians as they either ‘crossover’ or remain independent all the while trying to preserve some elusive measure of public honesty. As this mythology was implicitly unavailable to the producers of ‘Idol,’ a different kind of authenticity had to be constructed. Instead of a ‘battles of the bands’ (read: brands) contest, ‘Idol’ producers chose to present ‘unbranded’ aspirants (“Sydney Audition”). These hopefuls are presented as appealingly ambitious or merely optimistic individuals with varying degrees of talent. Those truly blessed, not only with talent but the drive to work it into saleable shape, would be carefully chosen from the multitude and offered an opportunity to make the most of their inherent yet unformed ability. Thus, their authenticity was assumed to be an implicit, inchoate presence, requiring the guiding hand of insiders to reach full flower. Through the facilitation of competition and direction provided in the form of knowledgeable music industry veterans who never tire of giving stern admonitions to indifferent performers who do not take full advantage of the opportunity presented to them, contestants are asked to prove themselves through an extended period of intense self-presentation and recreation. The lengthy televised, but tightly-edited auditions, complete with extensive commentary and the occasional gnashing of teeth on the part of the panel of experts and rejected contestants, demonstrate to us the earnest intent of those involved. Importantly, the authenticity of those proceeding through the contest is never firmly established, but has to be continually and strategically re-established. Each weighty choice of repertoire, wardrobe and performance style can only break them; each successful performance only raises the stakes. This tense maintenance of status as a deserving celebrity runs in tandem with the increasingly attentive and reciprocal relationship between the producers and the audience. The relationship begins with what has proved to be a compelling first act. Thousands of ‘ordinary’ Australians line up outside venues throughout the country, many sleeping in car parks and on footpaths, practising, singing and performing for the mobile camera crews. We are presented with their youthful vigour in all its varied guises. We cannot help but be convinced of the worth of those who survive such a process. The chosen few who are told with a flourish ‘You’re going to Sydney’ are then faced with what appears to be a daunting challenge, to establish themselves in short order as a performer with ‘the X factor’ (“Australian Idol” 14 July 2004). A fine voice and interesting look must be supplemented with those intangible qualities that result in wide public appeal. Yet these qualities are only made available to the public and the performer because of the contest itself. When the public is eventually asked to participate directly, it is to both produce and ratify exactly these ambiguous attributes. More than this, contestants need our help just to survive. Their celebrity is almost shockingly unstable, more fleeting than its surrounding rhetoric and context might suggest and under constant, expected threat. From round to round, favourites can easily become also rans–wild cards who limp out of one round, but storm through the next. The drama can only be heightened, securing our interest by requiring our input. As any advertiser can tell you, an effective campaign must end in action on our part. Through text message and phone voting as well as extensive ‘fan management’ through internet chat rooms and bulletin boards (see Stahl 228; http://au.messages.yahoo.com/australianidol/), our channelled ‘viral’ participation both shapes and completes the meanings of the contest. These active and often inventive relationships (http://au.australianidol.yahoo.com/fancentral/) allow the eventual ‘Idol’ to claim the credibility the means of their success otherwise renders suspect and these activities appear to consummate the relationship. However, the relationship continues well beyond the gala final. In a fascinating re-narration of the first series of ‘Australian Idol,’ Australian Idol: The Winner’s Story aired on the Friday following the final night of the contest. The story of the newly crowned Idol, Guy Sebastian, was presented in an hour long program that showed his home life, his life as a voice teacher in the Adelaide suburbs and his subsequent journey to stardom. The clips depicting his life prior to ‘Idol’ were of ambiguous vintage, cleverly silent on the exact date of production; somehow they were not quite in the past or the future, but floated in some eternal in-between. When his ‘Australian Idol’ experience was chronicled, after the second commercial break, we were allowed to see an intimate portrait of an anxious contestant transformed into ‘Your Australian Idol.’ There could be no doubt of the virtue of Sebastian’s struggles, nor of his well-earned victory. ‘New’ footage began with the sudden sensation reluctantly commenting on other contestants at the original Adelaide cattle call at the prompting of the mobile camera crew and ended with his teary-eyed mother exultant at the final decision as she stood in the front row at the Opera House. Further, not only is the entire run of the first series dramatically recounted in documentary format on the Australian Idol: Greatest Moments DVD, framed by Sebastian’s humble triumph, so are the stories of each member of the Final 12 and the paths they took through the contest. These reiterations serve to reinforce not only Sebastian’s status, but the status of the program itself. They confirm the benevolent success of the industry it so dutifully profiles. We are taken behind the curtain, allowed to see the machinery of stardom grind inevitably to a conclusion, knowing we will be allowed back again when the time is right. Whereas ‘Idol’ is routinely pilloried for its crass commercialism, it remains an unavoidable success. Viewers keep tuning in, advertisers still clamour to sponsor all aspects of the production and the CDs keep selling. Most importantly, the music industry has a showcase for its own operations. The structures of feeling it exists to produce take on a kind of subtle explicitness that ensures their perpetuation. Within an industry faced with threats perceived to be foundational, the creators of ‘Idol’ have produced an audacious and arrogant spectacle. They have made a profitable virtue out of an economic necessity. The expensive and unpredictable process of finding and nurturing new talent has not only been made more reliable, but ‘Idol’ has shown that it can actually turn a profit. The brand of celebrity produced by Idol possesses no mere sheen of populist approval, but embodies that more valuable commodity: popular attention, however reluctant or enthusiastic it may be. References “Australian Idol.” Ten Network, Sydney, 14 July 2004. “Australian Idol: The Winner’s Story.” Ten Network, Sydney, 21 November 2003. Australian Idol: Greatest Moments. Fremantle Media Operations, 2004. Brody, E.W. “The ‘Attention’ Economy.” Public Relations Quarterly 46.3 (2001): 18-21. 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(Nov. 2004) "'Australian Idol' and the Attention Economy," M/C Journal, 7(5). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0411/09-fairchild.php>.