Methodological support for the analysis of the stress-strain state of the driver’s cab during an emergency collision of a locomotive with an obstacle

Abstract

The task of calculation assessment of the structural protection effectiveness (passive safety and impact resistance) of a driver’s cab during an emergency collision of a locomotive with an obstacle in the way of movement is considered. Using the example of a 2ЭС6К electric locomotive and a 2ТЭ25К(М) diesel locomotive, the technical conditions are formulated on compliance to which such assessment shall be performed. Comparative measures of the effectiveness of individual variants of the structural performance of the impact protection units of the driver’s cab are presented. The features of modeling and performing calculation studies of the impact resistance of locomotives (head cars) are considered taking into account the hardening of structural steels and the dependence of their yield strength on the strain rate: an incremental plasticity model based on a bilinear representation of the true stress-true strain behavior taking into account kinematic hardening was used to describe the elastic-plastic behavior of steel. To calculate the stress-strain state of the cab supporting frame and the impact protection unit attached to it, modern computer crash test modeling techniques based on the finite element method and the integration of linearized resolving equations by implicit and explicit methods are used. The construction of the finite element models and calculation studies were carried out using specialized MSC.Mentat/Marc, MSC.Patran/Dytran software systems. The new opportunities that are provided by the developed methods and research are specified in the conclusions.