Fractures in the stub sills of tank cars pose a significant problem for the rail industry due to the potential for damage to the tank structure and eventual release of the contents. Previous FRA research revealed that high magnitude coupling forces that occur in yard operations have the potential to exceed yield limits of mild steel. FRA, Union Tank Car, and Amsted Rail completed a cooperative test program at Amsted Rail’s test facility in Camp Hill, PA, in 2018 to characterize coupling loads for tank cars in yard operations. ENSCO developed and validated a new low-cost method of calculating the longitudinal coupler force using carbody accelerations with 60 Hz filter cutoff frequency. The new method employs a derived linear relationship to calculate the longitudinal coupler force. It is equal to the longitudinal carbody acceleration multiplied by a constant 86.94 kips/g. Further improvement to the new method is possible by adjusting the accelerometer placement on the car and finetuning the filter cutoff frequency. The new method will facilitate and improve future research by providing feasible means to collect large amount of longitudinal coupler force measurements.
Fractures in the stub sills of tank cars pose a significant problem for the rail industry due to the potential for damage to the tank structure and ev...
Fractures in the stub sills of tank cars pose a significant problem for the rail industry due to the potential for damage to the tank structure and ev...
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United States Department of Transportation
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