Developing strategies for maintaining tank car integrity during train accidents

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Proceedings of the 1st Rail Transportation Division Fall Technical Conference
• Creators:
  Jeong, David ; Jacobsen, Karina ; Talamini, Brandon ; Carolan, Michael E.
• Corporate Creators:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Railroad crashes
  • Tank cars
  • Structural analysis
  • Impact tests
  • Energy absorption
  • Railroad safety
  • Hazardous materials
• Publication/ Report Number:
  RTDF2007-46015
• Resource Type:
  Proceedings
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  American Society of Mechanical Engineers
• Abstract:
  Accidents that lead to rupture of tank cars carrying ; hazardous materials can cause serious public safety hazards and ; substantial economic losses. The desirability of improved tank ; car designs that are better equipped to keep the commodity ; contained during impacts is clear. This paper describes a ; framework for developing strategies to maintain the structural ; integrity of tank cars during accidents. ; The target of this effort is to design a tank car capable of ; surviving impacts without loss of lading at twice the impact ; speed of current equipment (or, equivalently, is capable of ; absorbing four times the impact energy). The methodology ; developed breaks down the process into three steps: ; 1. Define the impact scenarios of concern ; 2. Choose strategies to mitigate failure modes ; present in each scenario ; 3. Design and select technology and tactics to ; implement the mitigation strategies ; The railroad accidents involving tank cars that occurred in ; Minot, ND, in 2002, and Graniteville, SC, in 2005, are ; examined to define the impact scenarios. Analysis of these ; accidents shows that two car-to-car impact scenarios are of ; greatest concern: head impact, where railroad equipment ; impacts the end of a tank car and possibly overrides it, and ; shell impact, where the tank car is impacted on its side, ; possibly off center. ; A conceptual design that can protect its lading at twice the ; impact speed of current equipment in the car-to-car impact ; scenarios is being developed. The conceptual design includes ; four functions to meet the impact requirements: blunts the ; impact loads, absorbs collision energy, strengthens the tank, ; and controls the load path to assure that loads are blunted and ; that energy is absorbed before the tank is loaded.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/9906/dot_9906_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 254.32 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:945f7b05af8db943de170cba27789acd0cc7bcf6220d43f8b1eede4b6bad6013091e5a2681a24fd3682512d34c7446c7e130e343e14aa59e837fd26fb3357dce