United States Department of Transportation
i
Improved tank car safety research
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2007-09-11
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[PDF-1.95 MB]
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Alternative Title:Proceedings of the 2007 ASME Rail Transportation Division Fall Technical Conference
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NTL Classification:NTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-RAIL TRANSPORTATION;NTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-Rail Safety;NTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Rail Safety;NTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Vehicle Design;
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Abstract:Three recent accidents involving the release of hazardous
material have focused attention on the structural integrity of
railroad tank cars: (1) Minot, ND, on January 18, 2002; (2)
Macdona, TX, on June 28, 2004; and (3) Graniteville, SC, on
January 6, 2005. Each of these accidents resulted in fatalities.
Research is being conducted to develop strategies for
improving railroad tank cars so they can maintain tank integrity
in severe accidents. A collaborative effort called the Next
Generation Rail Tank Car (NGRTC) Project intends to use
these research results to help develop improved tank car
designs. Dow Chemical Company, Union Pacific Railroad, and
Union Tank Car Company are the industry sponsors of the
NGRTC Project. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)
and Transport Canada participate in the NGRTC project
through Memoranda of Cooperation. FRA and the Pipeline and
Hazardous Materials Safety Administration intend to use these
research results to support rulemaking.
The approach taken in performing this research is to define
the collision conditions of concern, to evaluate the behavior of
current design equipment in these scenarios, and to develop
alternative strategies for increasing the maximum impact speed
for which tank integrity is maintained.
The accident scenarios have been developed from a review
of accidents and are intended to bound the range of main-line
accidents that can lead to a release of hazardous material from a
tank car. The accident scenarios and collision modes have been
used to define car-to-car impact scenarios. These car-to-car
impact scenarios define the conditions under which the
commodity must be contained. The impact scenarios are being
used to evaluate the integrity of current design and improved
design tank cars.
Full-scale impact tests are also being conducted, to help
validate modeling of the baseline equipment. The models have
been refined based on the test results. The models are now
being applied to develop the improved equipment designs.
This paper describes the overall research framework and
provides an overview of the research done to date, as well as
the planned efforts.
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