Post-collision inspection and data analysis of a passenger rail car

Abstract

There 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.