Structural Crashworthiness Standards Comparison: Grade Crossing Collision Scenarios

Details

• Creators:
  Llana, Patricia
• Corporate Creators:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Collisions Crashworthiness Finite Element Method Highway-railroad Grade Crossings Railroad Accidents Railroad Grade Crossings Standards
• Publication/ Report Number:
  RTDF2009-18030
• Resource Type:
  Proceedings
• Corporate Publisher:
  American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Abstract:
  In support of the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA)
  
  Railroad Equipment Safety Program, American and European
  
  grade-crossing collision scenarios were evaluated and
  
  compared. Finite element analyses (FEA) were employed to
  
  subject an FRA-compliant passenger car to grade-crossing
  
  collision scenarios defined in both the proposed FRA Code of
  
  Federal Regulations (CFR) and European Standard (EN)
  
  15227. The proposed FRA collision scenario involved a single
  
  car impacted by a cart. The cart had a punch mounted to it to
  
  hit a specific post of the end frame of the car. The EN 15227
  
  collision scenario involved a complete train consist impacting a
  
  large deformable obstacle that approximates a lorry. The
  
  analyses show that these collision scenarios, while both gradecrossing
  
  scenarios, are very different not only in terms of the
  
  impact object and the amount of initial kinetic energy involved,
  
  but also in terms of how the car is loaded and deformed during
  
  impact. The FRA scenario is shown to be easier to analyze as
  
  well as easier to test than the EN 15227 scenario. Additionally,
  
  the FRA scenario is safer to test because of the levels of initial
  
  energy involved. The FRA scenario also provides clearer
  
  metrics of success. The FRA-compliant car utilized in the
  
  analyses and test conducted for this paper passed both FRA and
  
  EN 15227 grade-crossing collision scenarios according to the
  
  requirements for each respective standard. However, the
  
  analyses show that despite both scenarios providing for energy
  
  absorption in a grade-crossing collision, because the manner in
  
  which the car is loaded and deformed (concentrated vs.
  
  distributed) is different, the FRA performance standard and EN
  
  15227 grade-crossing collision scenarios are not equivalent and
  
  mutual compliance is not guaranteed.
  
  
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:7cc406089532755284378b042b7111cdf867abbda4cb92ccbe8a70df5d357d38
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/9490/dot_9490_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.67 MB ]