The Federal Railroad Administration’s Office of Research, Development and Technology has been conducting research into passenger fuel tank crashworthiness. The occurrence of a fuel tank puncture during passenger rail collisions and derailments increases the potential of serious injury and fatality for crew and passengers due to the possibility of fire. The purpose of the FRA research is to help support regulatory and standard development with technical data. In the last decade, the research has focused on understanding how fuel tanks are punctured during an impact and how various tank designs respond to common types of loading in collisions, derailments and general operation. Throughout the research, surveys have been conducted to determine the most likely scenarios that are causing fuel tank punctures. A previous FRA survey found that fuel tank punctures occur under two types of loading conditions: a blunt impact or a raking impact. A limited number of accident/incidents were evaluated in this survey. These incidents showed that fuel tanks are punctured on any side that is not protected or shielded.
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sponsors research on safety topics to address and to improve safety regulations and standards. This paper fo...
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sponsors research on safety topics to address and to improve safety regulations and standards. This paper is...
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving a Bureau of Transportation
Statistics (BTS)/National Transportation Library (NTL)
Web-based service.
Thank you for visiting.
You are about to access a non-government link outside of
the U.S. Department of Transportation's National
Transportation Library.
Please note: While links to Web sites outside of DOT are
offered for your convenience, when you exit DOT Web sites,
Federal privacy policy and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation
Act (accessibility requirements) no longer apply. In
addition, DOT does not attest to the accuracy, relevance,
timeliness or completeness of information provided by linked
sites. Linking to a Web site does not constitute an
endorsement by DOT of the sponsors of the site or the
products presented on the site. For more information, please
view DOT's Web site linking policy.
To get back to the page you were previously viewing, click
your Cancel button.