REPORT ON SUMMARY OF RUPTURED TANK CARS INVOLVED IN PAST ACCIDENTS. PHASE 01 REPORT

This report constitutes an extension and refinement of previously issued Report RA-01-2-3, "Summary of Ruptured Tank Cars Involved in Accidents -12/4/70." Damage to a tank in an accident, leading to loss of lading, can be divided into two main categories: (1) Punctures, tears, dents with peripheral cracks, etc., caused by an external impact and involving little or no crack propagation away from the area of impact. (2) Ruptures, or outwardly moved metal, involving the propagation, and sometimes branching, or a crack (or cracks). A crack, once initiated, may or may not propagate. The propagation phenomenon--or tank rupture--is influenced by many variables, including the amount of energy which is available in the system and properties of the tank material at its existing temperature. As a result many modes of rupture occur. A comprehensive analysis of this entire subject is being performed by Phase 12 research contractor, Battelle Memorial Institute, and no attempt will be made in this report to develop explanations for the various rupture modes. This report is organized as follows: All ruptured cars (113 since 1958) are divided into two categories--those involving cracks which remained within a heat-weakened area (18 cars--listed in Appendix B), and those involving crack propagation beyond the heat-weakened area, or in tanks having no heat-weakened area (95 cars--listed in Appendix A). The ruptures in these two categories were generally "local" and "major", respectively; so, for brevity these terms will be used in this report. The data in Appendices A and B are summarized in Table 1 through 10, in Sections II, III, IV and V of this report. No conclusions or recommendations are made, since the only objective of this report is to publish information which we have been able to derive from a large collection of records and photographs on this important subject.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • An RPI-AAR Cooperative Project.
• Corporate Authors:

  Association of American Railroads Research Center

  3140 South Federal Street
  Chicago, IL  United States  60616
• Authors:
  • Weston, R A
• Publication Date: 1972-7-1

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 72 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash investigation; Derailments; Failure; Fires; Fracture mechanics; Hazardous materials; Safety
• Old TRIS Terms: Tank car safety research and test project
• Subject Areas: Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00080293
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Association of American Railroads
• Report/Paper Numbers: R-130
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 29 1976 12:00AM