United States Department of Transportation
i
Impact test of a crash-energy management passenger rail car
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2004-04-06
[PDF-1.25 MB]
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Alternative Title:Proceedings of the 2004 ASME/IEEE joint rail conference
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Abstract:On December 3, 2003, a single-car impact test was
conducted to assess the crashworthiness performance of a
modified passenger rail car. A coach car retrofitted with a
Crash Energy Management (CEM) end structure impacted a
fixed barrier at approximately 35 mph. This speed is just
beyond the capabilities of current equipment to protect the
occupants. The test vehicle was instrumented with
accelerometers, string potentiometers, and strain gages to
measure the gross motions of the car body in three dimensions,
the deformation of specific structural components, and the
force/crush characteristic of the impacted end of the vehicle.
The CEM crush zone is characterized by three structural
components: a pushback coupler, a sliding sill (triggering the
primary energy absorbers), and roof absorbers. These
structural mechanisms guide the impact load and consequent
crush through the end structure in a prescribed sequence.
Pre-test activities included quasi-static and dynamic
component testing, development of finite element and collision
dynamics models and quasi-static strength tests of the end
frame. These tests helped verify the predicted structural
deformation of each component, estimate a force-crush curve
for the crush zone, predict the gross motions of the car body,
and determine instrumentation and test conditions for the
impact test.
During the test, the passenger car sustained approximately
three feet of crush. In contrast to the test of the conventional
passenger equipment, the crush imparted on the CEM vehicle
did not intrude into the passenger compartment. However, as
anticipated the car experienced higher accelerations than the
conventional passenger car.
Overall, the test results for the gross motions of the car are
in close agreement. The measurements made from both tests
show that the CEM design has improved crashworthiness
performance over the conventional design. A two-car test will
be performed to study the coupled interaction of CEM vehicles
as well as the occupant environment. The train-to-train test
results are expected to show that the crush is passed
sequentially down the interfaces of the cars, consequently
preserving occupant volume.
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