Improved crashworthiness of rail passenger equipment in the United States

Details

• Alternative Title:
  World congress on railway research
• Creators:
  Tyrell, D. ; Tsai, T.
• Corporate Creators:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.) ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Railroad Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Railroad cars
  • Passenger cars
  • Commuter cars
  • Crashworthiness
  • Crash tests
  • Crash injury research
  • Crash victim simulation
  • Dummies
  • Collisions
  • Occupant protection devices
  More +
• Resource Type:
  Proceedings
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.) ; United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Railroad Administration
• Abstract:
  The Federal Railroad Administration has been conducting research to develop strategies for improved passenger ; protection in train accidents. Crash energy management (CEM) has been developed as a strategy for structural ; crashworthiness. Interior strategies that have been developed to work in concert with CEM include improved ; workstation tables and optimized commuter seats. The purpose of this research is to develop the technical ; information required for passenger equipment specifications, standards, and regulations. Research results are being ; applied by METROLINK commuter railroad in their current efforts to procure new equipment. The American ; Public Transportation Association is planning to develop industry standards from these research results. ; Alternative strategies for structural crashworthiness and occupant protection are first evaluated for potential ; effectiveness. For strategies that appear promising, designs are developed; test articles are built and then tested. The ; effectiveness studies define the crashworthiness design requirements; the design studies show what is feasible. The ; design studies result in drawings, which are used to build test articles. The construction of test articles requires that ; the designs be sound. The tests confirm the design performance; the test conditions are derived from the ; effectiveness studies; and the test results are used to refine the effectiveness studies. This research methodology ; results in the information required to develop specifications, standards, and regulations. ; For some collision conditions, CEM equipment can protect all of the occupants for closing speeds that are more than ; twice the speed for conventional equipment. Preserving the space for the occupants does marginally increase the ; deceleration of the CEM cab car. For trailing equipment, the decelerations are similar in CEM and conventional ; trains. The improved workstation table and optimized commuter passenger seat designs have been developed to ; mitigate the marginal increase in deceleration. The research on workstation tables has been carried out ; cooperatively with the United Kingdom’s Rail Safety and Standards Board. Crashworthiness can be incrementally ; improved by the strategic addition of CEM and occupant protection features. ; Full-scale impact tests have been arranged to allow direct comparison of the crashworthiness performance of ; conventional and alternative strategies. Single-car and two-car impact tests of conventional and CEM equipment ; have been conducted. These tests have shown that CEM can preserve the occupant volume and limit the likelihood ; of derailment. In these tests, the conventional equipment lost occupant volume and derailed. In the train-to-train ; tests, a cab car led train traveling at 30 mph impacts a standing locomotive led train. In the conventional equipment ; test, the space for 48 occupants was eliminated. The CEM equipment test is planned for March 23, 2006. It is ; expected that the space for all of the occupants will be preserved and that injury criteria values will remain within ; survivable limits. Instrumented test dummies in the cab and first coach cars will be used to confirm these ; expectations.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/9848/dot_9848_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 677.36 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center ; Federal Railroad Administration
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:8b455428a1d69e006b20bada643abcff10123fd15842e33ab5db3502cdd58b37