United States Department of Transportation
i
Hazardous Materials Transportation in Tank Cars: Analysis of Risks, Part I
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1993-05-15
[PDF-9.33 MB]
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Abstract:This report covers the development of a methodology to evaluate the potential national public risk arising from the transportation of hazardous materials in tank cars on the US railroads. The analysis is intended to assess the relative changes in the overall risk when (structural) safety devices are provided on tank cars. Also the relative risks of transporting different chemicals in a specified DOT class tank car can also be determined. An analysis of tank car accident data (maintained by the Railway Progress Institute and the Association of American Railroads) was made and statistics on tank car puncture sizes were developed. The hole size probability distribution was found to be similar for all DOT class tank car. The average puncture diameter was found to be 0.35 m and 0.29 m, respectively, for DOT 11 1 A and DOT 105 tank cars. No significant correlations were found between hole size and train speed; however, the provision of head shields and shelf couplers reduced the hole size. The risk model developed takes into account the characteristics of tank cars, the puncture probability, properties of the hazardous material released and its behavior in the environment, occurrence of the accident in different population density areas under different types of weather conditions at the time of the accident, etc. Toxicity, fire and explosion behavior of the chemicals have been considered. The focus of application of the model has been to the transportation of poison-by-inhalation (PIH) and flammable materials. The results of the risk assessment model have been presented as a matrix of frequency and consequence classes indicated by MIL standard 882 B. It is seen that the transportation of PIH in highly protected, higher strength tank cars, such as the DOT 105, provides about an order of magnitude reduction in the overall public risk compared to the transportation of the same material in DOT 111A class of tank car.
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