TANK CAR HEAD STUDY. PHASE 05 REPORT

During initial planning of the RPI-AAR Tank Car Safety Project, it was known that tank car heads were punctured in accidents with sufficient frequency to warrant assigning a specific Project Phase (05) for its study. The sequence of analyses and tests that were conducted under this phase were: Analysis of scale model laws for establishing feasibility of reduced scale tests; Preliminary drop weight tests on 1/12 scale tank car heads; Head impact tests on full scale old riveted tank cars; Development of head protection schemes and related cost/benefit analyses under contract to DOT; Head impact tests on 1/5 scale pressure and non-pressure cars with and without sill-head reinforcements; Head impact tests on 1/5 scale 112A340W pressure cars; Head impact tests on full scale new pressure cars to evaluate final head shield design; Analysis of all tests to correlate data, evaluate sensitivity of parameters, and predict degree of protection offered by final head shield design under various accident conditions. The purpose of this final Phase 05 Report is to present all the results under one cover, discuss them, and draw conclusions.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • An RPI-AAR cooperative program.
• Corporate Authors:

  Association of American Railroads Research Center

  3140 South Federal Street
  Chicago, IL  United States  60616

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590

  Indiana State Highway Commission

  Indianapolis, IN  United States  46204
• Authors:
  • PHILLIPS, E A
• Publication Date: 1972-7

Media Info

• Pagination: 119 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Couplers; Crashworthiness; Failure; Head; Safety; Safety hats; Tank cars; Vehicle design
• Uncontrolled Terms: Head shields
• Old TRIS Terms: Impact vulnerability; Tank car design; Tank car heads; Tank car safety research and test project
• Subject Areas: Design; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00080339
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Association of American Railroads Research Center
• Report/Paper Numbers: RA-05-1-17(R-140) Final Rpt.
• Files: NTIS, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Feb 11 1976 12:00AM