Alternative analyses of locomotive structural designs for crashworthiness

Details

• Creators:
  Martinez, Eloy ; Tyrell, David
• Corporate Contributors:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Crashworthiness
  • Locomotives
  • Railroad safety
  • Locomotive engineers
  • Collisions
  • Railroad grade crossings
  • Railroad trains
  • Structural design
  • Impact
  • Performance evaluations
  More +
• Resource Type:
  Proceedings
• Geographical Coverage:
  North America
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Railroad Administration
• Abstract:
  Enhanced crashworthiness performance of North American locomotives is proposed by both increasing the design loads on specific structural components or by describing the crashworthiness performance under specific impact conditions. The design loads for a conventional North ; American locomotive and the description of performance are intended to provide the same level of crashworthiness protection. A generic design was developed to illustrate the types of calculations that can be used to show that the design loads can be supported and the desired level of performance can be met. The performance of the generic locomotive ; subjected to a collision with a grade crossing object is measured by its ability to prevent penetration of the object into the occupied volume where the crew rides out the collision. The closed form hand calculations apply established structural analysis limit load theory and show the design loads can be supported. The finite element analysis results capture large deformation non-linear behavior and show the desired level of performance is achieved.
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/8511/dot_8511_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.23 MB]
• Collection(s):
  Federal Railroad Administration ; Volpe Center
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:fa46c9463fac42456518af39cef42c268337e76654d66b5d1e7e12218563f0b9