United States Department of Transportation
i
Full-scale two-car impact test: comparison of measured and model results
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2004-04-06
[PDF-331.73 KB]
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Alternative Title:Proceedings of 2004 ASME/IEEE joint rail conference
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Abstract:The Volpe National Transportation Systems Center is
conducting research into the crashworthiness of rail vehicles in
support of the Federal Railroad Administration's Office of
Research and Development. The approach taken has focused on
the review of accidents, development of analytical tools and
performing full-scale testing. A series of inline full-scale
impact tests have been performed using conventional passenger
cars. Recent full-scale testing included two instrumented
coupled conventional passenger cars impacting a fixed barrier
at 26 mph. The cars were instrumented with accelerometers,
strain gages and string potentiometers. From these
measurements, car translations, rotations, relative
displacements and coupler forces were calculated. A rigid body
dynamics model of the two-car configuration was developed
and used to design the test. In order to improve the collision
dynamics models of passenger cars, the results from this test
are being used to refine that model.
This paper describes the two-car impact test, the reduction
of data collected during the test and the refined collision
dynamics model. Post-test refinements allow the model to more
accurately simulate the vertical and lateral motions of the cars,
including the timing of the lateral buckling of the cars. The
post-test model also more accurately simulates the climbing of
the impact car as it crushes. Comparisons between the refined
model results with the measured data are presented for the
motion of the center of gravity of the cars, coupled car
interactions and forces, and lateral buckling.
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