Structural Crashworthiness Standards Comparison: Grade Crossing Collision Scenarios

Details

• Creators:
  Llana, Patricia
• Corporate Creators:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Crashworthiness
  • Railroad grade crossings
  • Collisions
  • Standards
  • Finite element method
  • Highway-railroad grade crossings
  • Railroad accidents
  • Finite element method
• Publication/ Report Number:
  RTDF2009-18030
• Resource Type:
  Proceedings
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Abstract:
  In support of the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) ; Railroad Equipment Safety Program, American and European ; grade-crossing collision scenarios were evaluated and ; compared. Finite element analyses (FEA) were employed to ; subject an FRA-compliant passenger car to grade-crossing ; collision scenarios defined in both the proposed FRA Code of ; Federal Regulations (CFR) and European Standard (EN) ; 15227. The proposed FRA collision scenario involved a single ; car impacted by a cart. The cart had a punch mounted to it to ; hit a specific post of the end frame of the car. The EN 15227 ; collision scenario involved a complete train consist impacting a ; large deformable obstacle that approximates a lorry. The ; analyses show that these collision scenarios, while both gradecrossing ; scenarios, are very different not only in terms of the ; impact object and the amount of initial kinetic energy involved, ; but also in terms of how the car is loaded and deformed during ; impact. The FRA scenario is shown to be easier to analyze as ; well as easier to test than the EN 15227 scenario. Additionally, ; the FRA scenario is safer to test because of the levels of initial ; energy involved. The FRA scenario also provides clearer ; metrics of success. The FRA-compliant car utilized in the ; analyses and test conducted for this paper passed both FRA and ; EN 15227 grade-crossing collision scenarios according to the ; requirements for each respective standard. However, the ; analyses show that despite both scenarios providing for energy ; absorption in a grade-crossing collision, because the manner in ; which the car is loaded and deformed (concentrated vs. ; distributed) is different, the FRA performance standard and EN ; 15227 grade-crossing collision scenarios are not equivalent and ; mutual compliance is not guaranteed.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/9490/dot_9490_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.67 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a8d486bd2931e07f2114f2e347b8d4e0567ef8c9fe801709d2484f235952cb91a47741f1ae869262ccc73539a4f48b71c28707e809f28495876ff6ab668ccbee