ELASTIC SYSTEMS FOR TRACTION AND SHOCK GEAR (SIDE-BUFFERS AND CENTRE-BUFFERS). INFLUENCE OF THE CHARACTERISTIC OF THE SIDE-BUFFERS ON THE STRESSES EXERTED ON THE LOAD DURING IMPACTS (TEST CARRIED OUT AT MAARN, NETHERLANDS, IN 1967)

The Report describes impact tests on 20 and 40 t good wagons, fitted with side-buffers of various designs. In order to study the influence of the shape of the characteristic on the behavior of the load, the test wagons were loaded with unsecured blocks of salt, freely stacked (representative of rigid, but fragile loads) or with bags of cement (representative of deformable, but non-elastic loads). During the impacts, speeds, buffer forces, buffer strokes and the stresses in the solebars were measured. After each test, the condition of the load was assessed. The assessment of the tests has shown that the most unfavourable effect on the load occurred in the case of the light-loaded wagon. As soon as more than 400 kN were measured in the two side-buffers of a wagon, considerable disorder and damage of the load were observed. At higher force levels, also the proportion of impact energy absorbed by wagon and load was progressively increased. The continued assessment also enables guiding values for the elastic systems of the automatic coupler to be stated. It should, however, be observed that, on the occasion of these tests with side-buffers, the vehicles could be separated after the impact and they were not interconnected as in the case of the automatic coupling.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Restrictions on the use of this document are contained in the explanatory material.
• Corporate Authors:

  International Union of Railways

  Office of Research and Experiments
  Utrecht,   Netherlands 
• Publication Date: 1969-4

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 35 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Couplers; Occupant protection devices; Tests; Vehicle components
• Uncontrolled Terms: Impact protection; Performance analysis
• Old TRIS Terms: Automatic coupling; Buffers; Center buffers; Question b36; Side buffers
• Subject Areas: Railroads; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00053014
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: International Union of Railways
• Report/Paper Numbers: B36/RP 7/E
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 26 1976 12:00AM