Dynamic simulation of railway vehicle occupants under secondary impact

Abstract

To study the dynamic response of a railway vehicle occupant during collision, a multi-car coupling collision model was set-up to obtain velocity and acceleration data for every car, and occupant secondary impact velocity (SIV) plots, which were applied to the car body – passenger compartment – dummy coupling model. Then the performance index results for the dummy, its governing movement laws, head acceleration response, and the relationship between performance index and SIV were obtained for each car by analysis under different conditions. The results indicated that both the head injury and thoracic cumulative 3 ms injury criteria increased with increasing SIV. The velocity of the dummy in Car 3 (moving) and Car 7 (static before impact) was greatest when the occupant faced a table: the corresponding head injury ratings were 669.9 and 606.0, respectively, and the thoracic ratings were 656.2 and 641.4 m/s2.