Fuel tank integrity research : fuel tank analyses and test plans

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Proceedings of the 2013 ASME/IEEE/ASCE Joint Rail Conference, April 15-18, 2013, Knoxsville, TN
• Creators:
  Jacobsen, Karina ; Llana, Patricia ; Carolan, Michael ; Sullivan, Laura
• 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:
  • Fuel tanks
  • Crashworthiness
  • Static and dynamic tests
  • Static tests
  • Load tests
  • Finite element method
  • Structural analysis
  • Impact tests
• Publication/ Report Number:
  JRC2013-2425
• Resource Type:
  In Proceedings
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  American Society of Mechanical Engineers ; American Society of Civil Engineers ; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Abstract:
  The Federal Railroad Administration’s Office of Research ; and Development is conducting research into fuel tank ; crashworthiness. Fuel tank research is being performed to ; determine strategies for increasing the fuel tank impact ; resistance to mitigate the threat of a post-collision or postderailment ; fire. 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 ; design practice requires that fuel tanks have minimum ; properties adequate to sustain a prescribed set of static load ; conditions. 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 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. ; U.S. rail accident surveys reveal the types of threats fuel ; tanks are exposed to during collisions, derailments and other ; events. These include blunt impacts and raking impacts to any ; exposed side of the tank. This research focuses on evaluating ; dynamic impact conditions for fuel tanks and investigating how ; fuel tank design features affect the collision performance of the ; tank. Research activities will include analytical modeling of ; fuel tanks under dynamic loading conditions, dynamic impact ; testing of fuel tank articles, and recommendations for improved ; fuel tank protection strategies. ; This paper describes detailed finite element analyses that ; have been developed to estimate the behavior of three different ; fuel tanks under a blunt impact. These analyses are being used ; to understand the deformation behavior of different tanks and ; prepare for planned testing of two of these tanks. Observations ; are made on the influence of stiffeners, baffles, and other ; design details relative to the distance from impact. ; This paper subsequently describes the preliminary test ; plans for the first set of tests on conventional passenger ; locomotive fuel tanks. The first set of tests is designed to ; measure the deformation behavior of the fuel tanks with a blunt ; impact of the bottom face of the tanks. The test articles are fuel ; tanks from two retired EMD F-40 locomotives. A blunt impact ; will be conducted by securing the test articles to a crash wall ; and impacting them with an indenter extending from a test cart. ; This set of tests is targeted for late summer 2013 at the ; Transportation Technology Center (TTC) in Pueblo, Colorado. ; Both blunt and raking impact conditions will be evaluated ; in future research. Tests are also being planned for DMU fuel ; tanks under dynamic loads.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/11996/dot_11996_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.32 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:b52adbde69d36381c4ee1c9791d907b7af9dc8709dea7972854ea3cc60f9f54afdad955a76b0a6095d8a13bda3d7024845298c3b229ab01b93f71b0ac7f0ed16