Vehicle postmortem and data analysis of a passenger rail car collision test

PDFProceedingsCH37356-TBRCrashworthinessImpact testsCrash injury researchCrash victim simulationDummiesCollisionsAccelerometersUnited StatesAmerican Society of Mechanical EngineersInstitute of Electrical and Electronics EngineersMacNeill, Robert AKirkpatrick, Steven WApplied Research Associates, Inc.United States. Federal Railroad Administration. Office of Research and DevelopmentAGR-PASSENGERS-PASSENGERSNTL-RAIL TRANSPORTATION-Rail SafetyNTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-AccidentsNTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Rail SafetyVolpe National Transportation Systems Center, Technical Reference CenterThere is an ongoing research program in the United States to investigate and improve rail equipment crashworthiness. As part of this effort, a series of full-scale rail vehicle crash tests are being performed to investigate the crash response of existing and future rail vehicle designs. The first full-scale test, an impact of a single passenger coach car into a fixed wall, was conducted at the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) in Pueblo, Colorado on November 16, 1999. The test vehicle used was a Pioneer passenger coach car. The test condition was a 35 mph impact into a fixed rigid concrete wall.Collision response data was collected in the test using accelerometers, strain gauges, string potentiometers, and high-speed photography. This paper describes the postmortem documentation and data analysis process. The objective is to develop an understanding of the vehicle collision response and to obtain a consistent correlation of the various sources to data. Specific documentation and data analysis techniques used for the study are described along with key results