Dr. Qing Wu
Ph,D., M.Eng., B.Eng.
Principal Research Fellow, ARC DECRA Fellow, AQIRF Fellow
School of Engineering and Technology
Centre for Railway Engineering
- q.wu@cqu.edu.au
- ORCID: 0000-0001-9407-5617
- Hidden
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Rockhampton North
70 - 1.16
Centre for Railway Engineering
My Networks
About Me
Associate Professor Qing Wu is a Principal Research Fellow and Mechanical Discipline Leader at the Centre for Railway Engineering, CQUniversity Australia. He is an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Fellow and an Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellow. He is also a Chartered Professional Engineer, Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland and Registered Professional Engineer of Victoria.
His research sits at the intersection of mechanical engineering, railway engineering and computational dynamics. His core expertise includes railway vehicle system dynamics, longitudinal train dynamics, wheel-rail contact, track dynamics, railway braking, tribology, vibration, numerical modelling, mechanical characterisation, optimisation, dynamic control and high-performance computing. He applies this expertise to railway vehicles, heavy-haul trains, track systems and emerging intelligent transport systems.
Qing’s research goal is clear. He aims to help railways become safer, greener and more efficient. This matters for Australia. Rail is central to national freight, mining exports, regional connectivity and decarbonisation. Australian heavy-haul railways operate some of the longest and heaviest trains in the world. These trains create unique challenges in train dynamics, braking, vehicle-track interaction, derailment prevention, energy use and asset life. Qing’s work addresses these challenges through physics-based modelling, large-scale simulation, physical testing and industry translation.
Qing has built a sustained research profile in railway dynamics. He has authored more than 240 scientific publications. His publications include influential work on longitudinal train dynamics, train air brake modelling, train-track interaction, heavy-haul wheel and rail wear, rolling contact fatigue, virtual coupling, parallel computing and energy-efficient train design. His research has been recognised through international citation rankings, highly cited publications and awards from CQUniversity, international conferences and professional bodies.
He has attracted and delivered major competitive and industry-funded research. His national and state competitive fellowships include an ARC DECRA project on supercomputing for track buckling and train derailments, and an Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship on energy-efficient rail vehicle design and digital rating systems. He has also led or contributed to major industry research projects through the Australasian Centre for Rail Innovation and direct industry partners. These projects have addressed wagon load distribution, combined track geometry irregularities, locomotive-induced rail stresses, train driving strategies, wheel diameter differences, wear simulation and field research for railway infrastructure.
A key strength of Qing’s research is translation. He works closely with rail operators, infrastructure managers, mining companies, manufacturers and standards bodies. His industry and consultancy work has supported major Australian heavy-haul and freight rail stakeholders, including BHP, Rio Tinto, FMG, Aurizon, Arc Infrastructure, CBH and Wilmar Sugar. His research has contributed to safer train operations, better simulation tools, improved braking analysis, track maintenance knowledge and energy-focused rail innovation.
Qing has also shown strong international leadership. He organised the International Benchmarking of Longitudinal Train Dynamics Simulators, involving 12 institutions from six countries. He also led an international review of freight train air brake modelling, involving more than 30 collaborators from 24 institutions and 12 countries. These initiatives helped set shared modelling practices and benchmarks for the global railway research community. He is also CQUniversity’s technical representative to the International Union of Railways Harmotrack project and a researcher in the International Joint Laboratory on Railway Engineering System Dynamics.
His leadership extends beyond research projects. Since 2020, he has served as the Mechanical Discipline Leader at the Centre for Railway Engineering and as a member of the CRE Management Committee. He has mentored early-career researchers in high-performance computing, grant writing and railway simulations. He has supervised PhD students and visiting scholars, with a strong focus on industry-relevant research, timely completion and high-quality publications.
Qing contributes actively to professional service. He has served as an ARC assessor for Discovery Projects, DECRA, Linkage Projects and industry-related schemes. In 2023, he contributed to the ARC Discovery Program Grant Process Consultation. He has served on editorial boards and guest-edited special issues for leading railway, transport and mechanical engineering journals. He has also served on international conference committees and chaired sessions in train dynamics, railway braking and intelligent transport. In Australia, he has contributed to railway standards development, including standards related to train braking rates, disc brakes and braking systems.
Qing welcomes collaboration with researchers, rail operators, public agencies, manufacturers, technology developers and standards bodies. His current and future research focuses on energy-efficient and safety-resilient trains, advanced train dynamics, digital twins, intelligent railway systems, railway braking, decarbonisation and system-level rail innovation.
General
Background
Associate Professor Qing Wu has followed a continuous railway engineering path since 2006. His background is unusual for its depth and focus. From undergraduate study to current research leadership, his work has centred on railway vehicles, trains and track systems.
He began his railway studies at Southwest Jiaotong University in China, one of the world’s major railway engineering universities. He completed a Bachelor of Engineering in Railway Vehicle Engineering in 2010. He then completed a Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering at the Rail Vehicle Institute and State Key Laboratory of Traction Power in 2012. His undergraduate and master’s research focused on railway vehicle and train dynamics. This early training gave him a strong foundation in vehicle mechanics, wheel-rail contact, traction systems, braking, suspension behaviour and train operation.
After his master’s degree, Qing worked as a Research Assistant at the State Key Laboratory of Traction Power. This experience strengthened his understanding of large-scale railway research and national rail technology development. It also exposed him to advanced railway testing, simulation and industry-linked research. In 2013, he moved to Australia to undertake doctoral research at CQUniversity’s Centre for Railway Engineering. Australia’s heavy-haul railway systems were a natural fit for his research interests. The country operates some of the world’s longest and heaviest freight trains, which create complex problems in train dynamics, braking, vehicle stability and track loading.
Qing completed his PhD at CQUniversity in 2016. His doctoral research focused on train dynamics and draft gear optimisation. His PhD thesis received major thesis awards, including recognition from CQUniversity and the Railway Technical Society of Australasia. After completing his PhD, he continued at the Centre for Railway Engineering. He progressed from Research Fellow to Senior Research Fellow and then to Principal Research Fellow, equivalent to Associate Professor. His academic employment has been research-only, with a strong emphasis on externally funded research, industry collaboration, research training and leadership.
His early postdoctoral work focused on longitudinal train dynamics, coupler systems, draft gears and long-train simulations. This work helped address practical problems faced by heavy-haul railways, where in-train forces, braking delays, coupler stability and vehicle-track interaction can affect safety, productivity and maintenance cost. He later expanded this work into three-dimensional train dynamics and high-performance computing. This enabled more realistic simulations of long trains, where each vehicle can have nonlinear wheel-rail contact, suspension behaviour and frictional damping.
High-performance computing became one of Qing’s major research strengths. He has been a leading developer of large-scale railway simulation capability at CQUniversity. His methods have allowed long trains and train-track systems to be studied in greater detail. This work supported his ARC DECRA Fellowship on track buckling and train derailments. The project developed advanced simulation approaches to understand how track instability and train dynamics interact. It also strengthened CQUniversity’s capability in computational railway safety research.
Qing has also made major contributions to railway braking research. He identified railway air brake modelling as a key research need for future intelligent and automated rail systems. He then led an international collaboration on freight train air brake modelling. This collaboration brought together experts from many countries and institutions. The outcomes helped clarify current modelling practice, identify research gaps and support more consistent brake simulation. Qing later co-chaired the International Workshop on Railway Brake Research and contributed to Australian railway braking standards.
His current research has broadened into energy-efficient and safety-resilient rail systems. Through his Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship, he is developing methods to assess rail vehicle energy performance and to support more efficient vehicle design. His broader research direction links energy use, vehicle dynamics, safety, wear, braking and operations. This direction is important for rail decarbonisation. It also supports future battery-electric locomotives, intelligent railway systems and more efficient heavy-haul operations.
Industry engagement has been a defining part of Qing’s background. He has led or contributed to projects with rail operators, infrastructure managers, mining companies and manufacturers. His work has supported train dynamics simulation, haulage analysis, stopping distance calculations, wheel and rail damage assessment, track geometry studies, brake modelling, train driving strategies and energy management. These projects show his ability to translate advanced mechanical engineering research into decisions that matter to industry.
Qing’s background also includes substantial research leadership and service. Since 2020, he has served as the Mechanical Discipline Leader at the Centre for Railway Engineering. In this role, he contributes to research planning, project development, publication quality, staff mentoring, student recruitment and new research themes. He has supported work in digital twins, intelligent transport systems, hydrogen and battery rail technologies, high-performance computing and railway safety.
He has also contributed to national and international research governance. He has reviewed ARC applications across several schemes and participated in the ARC Discovery Program Grant Process Consultation. He serves on journal editorial boards, conference committees and railway standards development groups. He is an active member of professional organisations, including Engineers Australia, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Railway Technical Society of Australasia.
Qing’s background combines specialist depth with broad assessment capability. His specialist strength is railway train dynamics. His broader expertise spans mechanical engineering, numerical modelling, vibration, tribology, control, energy systems, transport safety, digital engineering and applied high-performance computing. This combination supports his long-term goal: to build railway research that is academically rigorous, industry-relevant and useful for safer, more efficient and more sustainable transport.
Universities Studied At
2013-2016: Ph.D, Centre for Railway Engineering, Central Queensland University, Australia.
2010-2012: M. Eng (Mech), Rail Vehicle Institute, State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, China
<current name State Key Laboratory of Rail Transit Vehicle System>
2006-2010: B.Eng (Mech), Rail Vehicle Department, Southwest Jiaotong University, China
Universities Worked At
2023- :Principal Research Fellow , Centre for Railway Engineering, CQU.
2019-2022: Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Railway Engineering, CQU.
2016-2018: Research Fellow, Centre for Railway Engineering, CQU.
2013-2016: Marker; tutor; lab instructor; lab supervisor, CQU.
2012-2013: Research Assistant, State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, China.
Awards
· 2024, CQU Research Excellence Award.
· 2024, Vice Chancellor’s award for Outstanding Researchers (Middle Career)
· 2024, Dean’s award for Outstanding Researchers
· 2024, Best Paper Award, International Conference on Rail Transportation, China.
· 2024, Visting Professor Grant, CAPE-PRINT, Brazilian Ministry of Education.
· 2022, Best Paper Award, World Congress on Railway Research, Birmingham, UK.
· 2021, Early Career Researcher Award, CQU.
· 2021, Best Paper Award, the 2nd International Conference on Rail Transportation, China.
· 2019, Commendation of Early Career Researcher, CQU.
· 2018, Five Minute Research Pitch (National) 2nd Place; (CQU Internal) 1st Place.
· 2017, Post Graduate Thesis Award (1st Prize), awarded by the Railway Technical Society of Australasia (RTSA)
· 2017, Outstanding Research Higher Degree Thesis Award, CQU.
· 2013-2016, International Postgraduate Award, CQU.
· 2013-2016, University Postgraduate Research Award, CQU.
· 2015, Faiveley Youth Scholarship, jointly awarded by Faiveley Transport & RTSA.
· 2015, Best Paper of RHD students symposium, SET, CQU. (1st prize)
· 2014, Faiveley Youth Scholarship, jointly awarded by Faiveley Transport & RTSA.
Media Citations
CQU academics feature in World’s Top 2% Scientists list, CQUniversity News, 2025.
Ex’cite’ment for researchers in top 2 per cent, CQUniversity News, 2024.
Rail decarbonisation research gets a boost thanks to Advance Queensland and Aurizon, CQUniversity News, 2024.
Powering a greener future for Queensland’s rail industry, Advance Queensland, 2024.
Rail Decarbonisation Research Gets a Boost from Advance Queensland and Aurizon, CQUniversity Research Impact.
Railway team leads multi-national collaborative research, CQUniversity News, 2023.
CQUniversity on track for railway research excellence, CQUniversity News, 2023.
IMPACT | S3 | Ep 5 | Outstanding Researchers LIVE, CQUniversity Research Podcast, 2022.
CQUniversity and the digitalisation path to predictive maintenance, Rail Express, 2021.
Outstanding Academics Recognised In 2021 Vice-Chancellor’s Researcher Awards, CQUniversity News, 2021.
Research on track to help prevent railway accidents, Courier Mail / News Corp.
Virtual simulations on track to improve rail and rollingstock life cycles, CQUniversity Research Impact.
Supercomputers shunted into heavy rail research by CQU, iTnews, 2019.
CQU uses supercomputer to monitor heavy haul, Track & Signal, 2019, 23(3).
Academics pitch their research in five minutes, CQUniversity News, 2018.
2017 Post Graduate Thesis Award: Qing Wu, Railway Technical Society of Australasia, 2017.
Celebrating National Science Week with Qing Wu
Rail research with the power to keep global economy moving, CQUniversity News, 2017.
ACRI-funded study to boost life cycle of tracks, Rail Express, 2016.
Half-million-dollar research funding will help boost life cycle of railway tracks, CQUniversity News, 2016.
Railway tracks receive a funding boost, The Morning Bulletin, 2016.
High-tech vehicle could scan railway tracks for early detection of damage, CQUniversity News, 2016.
Professional Memberships
CPEng (Chartered Professional Engineer)
RPEQ (Registered Professional Engineer of Queensland)
RPEV (Registered Professional Engineer of Victoria)
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
Engineers Australia (EA)
Railway Technical Society of Australasia (RTSA)
China Railway Society (CRS)
Editor
· Standard Development Group Member:
o Train Braking Rates, Australian Standards AS 7481
o Disc Brakes and Pads, Australian Standards AS 7504.
o Braking Systems, Australian Standards AS 7510.
· Associate editor/editorial member for
o Heavy Rail
o ASME Journal of Autonomous Vehicles and Systems
o Advances in Mechanical Engineering
o Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering
o Railway Engineering Science
o Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University
o Electronic Research Achieve
o Advances in Vehicle Engineering (2017-2018).
· Guest Journal Editor
o International Journal of Rail Transpiration
o Vehicle System Dynamics
o Australian Journal of Mechanical Engineering
o Railway Engineering Science
Recent Research Projects
Research Supervision
Accreditation
I am currently accredited for supervision in the following:
- 4017 Mechanical Engineering
