Train set crash analysis with crash behavior of a coupler

Abstract

In the event of a collision accident, if a coupler is failed, the distance between railway adjacent vehicles cannot be maintained at a constant space, which may result in a collision between the ends of those railway vehicles. Therefore, it is important to understand the fracture behavior of a coupler in order to study the crashworthiness of a train set. We conducted quasi-static compressive fracture tests to obtain the deformation characteristics and fracture modes for each coupler angle. As a result, it is clarified that there are two fracture modes depending on the coupler angle. In order to understand the dynamic fracture characteristics of a coupler, a Finite Element (FE) model was constructed which validate the quasi-static compressive fracture test. And the fracture characteristics of each coupler angle were estimated when dynamic loads were applied. In addition, by extending the FE model of a coupler to a car body model, a collision analysis model of a train set with elasto-plastic body of the front and end structures was developed. As a basic study, a collision analysis was conducted assuming a level crossing accident. We consider the improvement of the crashworthiness of a train set with not requiring major changes to a car body structure. As a result, we confirm that reinforcing an under support plate and adopting a coupler with energy absorbing element will prevent the fracture of a coupler and increase the crashworthiness of a train set.

Keywords

• railway vehicle
• crashworthiness
• finite element method
• vehicle strength
• train set
• fracture mode
• coupler