Full-Scale Crash Testing Facilities for a Railway Vehicle

Abstract

KRRI (Korea Railroad Research Institute) has successfully performed several tens of impact tests of crash parts for a railway vehicles. Full-scale crash testing facilities were newly established including a crash barrier, dynamic load cell, high speed DAS (Data Acquisition System), a laser displacement sensor, dummies, a motor car and etc. This paper introduces series of impact test results using full-scale crash testing facilities. The impact test for railway vehicles consists of three categories, i.e. single item tests, module tests and crash structure tests. For single item tests, expansion tubes, composite tubes, collapsible tubes and etc. were tested. For module tests, a crash test of a light collision safety device with an expansion tube and triggering mechanism was performed. For crash structure tests, several full-scale crash tests were performed including front-end and cab structures with or without dummies. The crash testing equipment developed will be able to evaluate the occupant safety as well as the structural crashworthiness of a train.