Test requirements of locomotive fuel tank blunt impact tests

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Proceedings of the ASME 2013 Rail Transportation Division Fall Technical Conference
• Creators:
  Jacobsen, Karina ; Carolan, Michael ; Llana, Patricia
• Corporate Creators:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Railroad Administration. Office of Research and Development
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Locomotives
  • Fuel tanks
  • Impact tests
  • Testing
  • Dynamic loads
  • Crashworthiness
  • Collisions
  • Finite element method
  • Railroad safety Blunt impact tests
• Publication/ Report Number:
  RTDF2013-4701
• Resource Type:
  Proceedings
• Geographical Coverage:
  Colorado
• Corporate Publisher:
  American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Abstract:
  The Federal Railroad Administration’s Office of Research ; and Development is conducting research into passenger ; locomotive fuel tank crashworthiness. A series of impact tests ; are planned to measure fuel tank deformation under two types ; of dynamic loading conditions. This paper describes the test ; requirements for the preliminary tests in this series – a blunt ; impact of conventional locomotive fuel tanks. ; Current design practice requires that Tier 1 locomotive fuel ; tanks have minimum properties adequate to sustain a ; prescribed set of static load conditions 1. In accidents, fuel ; tanks are subjected to dynamic loading, often including a blunt ; or raking impact from various components of the rolling stock ; or trackbed. Current research is intended to increase ; understanding of the impact response of fuel tanks under ; dynamic loading. Utilizing an approach that has been effective ; in increasing the structural crashworthiness of passenger ; railcars, improved strategies can be developed that will address ; the types of loading conditions which have been observed to ; occur in a collision or derailment event. The improvement ; strategies developed by this research program can then be ; applied to alternative fuel tank designs, such as diesel multiple ; unit (DMU) tanks. ; This paper describes test requirements for conducting two ; preliminary tests. These tests are referred to as preliminary ; because they will be used to evaluate the loading setup and ; instrumentation planned for the larger series of tests. These ; preliminary tests will evaluate a blunt impact on the bottom ; surface of two conventional passenger locomotive fuel tanks. ; The test articles chosen for the preliminary tests are fuel tanks ; removed from two retired EMD F-40 locomotives. While these ; fuel tanks do not reflect the current state of locomotive fuel ; tank manufacturing or design, they are suitable for means of ; these tests. ; Each fuel tank will be mounted to a crash wall and ; impacted on its bottom face by an impact cart with a rigid ; impactor at a prescribed velocity. The first set of tests is ; designed to measure the deformation behavior of the fuel tanks. ; These tests are planned to result in puncture of the bottom ; surface of each fuel tank. The preliminary tests are targeted for ; October 2013 at the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) ; in Pueblo, Colorado. ; Following this first series of impact tests, a second set of ; dynamic impact tests is planned to be conducted. This second ; set will include both blunt and raking impact conditions on ; conventional fuel tanks, DMU fuel tanks and fuel tanks ; incorporating improved strategies for impact protection. ; Lessons learned during the preliminary two tests will be ; applied during the second set of tests to improve the ; performance of those tests. Fuel tank research is being ; performed to determine strategies for increasing the fuel tank ; impact resistance to mitigate
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• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  RR28A3/LLF22
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/10104/dot_10104_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.58 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f7376c4f322b7926b596d296ce80f6e6b9a01836d48c08fbe4236276acd57296305e9ce5d34778a68514289ef0dc279c71d56bc4b19b78bbb59cfcb1435d6d04