Performance Efficiency of a Crash Energy Management System

Details

• Creators:
  Carolan, Michael E. ; Jeong, David ; Perlman, A. Benjamin
• Corporate Creators:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Collisions Crashworthiness Dynamic Structural Analysis Dynamic Testing Dynamic Tests Fracture Mechanics Fracture Tests Passenger Cars Passenger Cars Railroad Accidents Railroad Cars Railroad Safety Transportation--Safety Measures

  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  JRCICE2007-40064
• Resource Type:
  Proceedings
• Corporate Publisher:
  American Society of Mechanical Engineers ; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Abstract:
  Previous work has led to the development of a crash energy
  
  management (CEM) system designed to distribute crush
  
  throughout unoccupied areas of a passenger train in a collision
  
  event. This CEM system is comprised of crush zones at the
  
  front and rear ends of passenger railcars. With a consist made
  
  up of CEM-equipped cars, the structural crush due to a collision
  
  can be distributed along the length of the train, crushing only
  
  unoccupied areas and improving the train's crashworthy speed
  
  as compared with a conventional train in a similar collision.
  
  This paper examines the effectiveness of one particular
  
  CEM system design for passenger rail cars. The operating
  
  parameters of the individual components of the CEM system are
  
  varied, and this paper analyzes the effects of these variations on
  
  the behavior of the consist during a collision. The intention is
  
  to determine what modifications to the components, if any,
  
  could improve the crashworthiness of passenger railcars beyond
  
  the baseline CEM design without introducing new hazards to
  
  passengers.
  
  A one-dimensional, lumped-mass model of a passenger
  
  train impacting a heavy freight train was used in this
  
  investigation. Using this model of a collision, the force-crush
  
  behavior for each end of each car in the impacting consist was
  
  varied. The same force-crush characteristic was applied to each
  
  car end on the passenger train.
  
  The four components of the CEM system investigated were
  
  the draft gear, pushback coupler, primary energy absorbers, and
  
  occupied volume of the train car. The paper presents selected
  
  parameters of particular interest, such as the strength ratio of the
  
  primary energy absorber to the pushback coupler and the
  
  average strength of the occupied volume.
  
  The objective of this work was to ascertain the sensitivities
  
  of the various parameters on the crashworthy speed and to help
  
  optimize the force-crush characteristic. This investigation
  
  determined that modifications could be made to the baseline
  
  characteristic to improve the train's crashworthy speed without
  
  creating new hazards to occupants.
  
  
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:144506f90d5c00aa21656e090bed7d6dfa0a5c49376af6754aeceb76b41b4e6aa50b5ed7283a8910515027b49326176637e46096ddc834d609848e18643fd8ac
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/9504/dot_9504_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 495.58 KB ]