Evaluation of passenger rail vehicle crashworthiness

In recent years there has been an increased effort to investigate and improve the crashworthiness of passenger rail vehicles in the United States. The structural crashworthiness requirements for new rail vehicles are changing to include specifications for crash energy management and crush zones rather than primarily specifications of vehicle and component strengths. In addition, the structural requirements to improve crashworthiness of rail vehicles can vary significantly from high-speed rail to light-rail transit vehicles depending on the service conditions. In this paper a comparison of the various experimental, analytical, and computational approaches are used to evaluate rail vehicle crashworthiness. The experimental approaches include static and dynamic testing of vehicles and components using scale model and full-scale structures. The appropriate type of test can vary significantly depending on the test objective. Scale model component tests may be the most efficient approach for developing a new crash energy management concept in a vehicle crush zone. Alternatively, a full-scale vehicle test may be required to demonstrate that the final design meets structural requirements. Similarly, there is a wide range of analyses that can be performed to evaluate various aspects of rail vehicle crashworthiness. Analyses can range from simplified one-dimensional models used to evaluate interactions between vehicles and study the effects of varying parameters such as crush strength to detailed three-dimensional finite element crash simulations that can be used as part of the vehicle design process. Here example analyses to provide further insight on the appropriate application of modelling approaches are shown.