RESEARCH ON RAPID DESIGN OF FRONT-END ENERGY ABSORBING STRUCTURE THAT BASED ON AMERICAN STANDARD ASME RT-2

Abstract

The energy absorbing structure is required at the front end of railway vehicles to reduce the collapse of the passenger area and increase the safety of the vehicle in case of collision based on American Standard ASME RT-2. In this paper, a typical front-end structure with integrated energy absorbing is introduced in detail as well as two other designs to illustrate the theory on rapid design of front-end underframe structure. The three front-end underframe structures are all mainly comprised of anti-climber, several kinds of crushed elements and head girders. Two other designs are based on the typical front-end underframe structure. All three designs are optimized multiple times based on the finite element analysis results of main load cases. To validate the design and analysis, the impact test of all front-end underframe structures is successfully conducted by investigating crash energy, deformation behavior and impact force. From the design and optimization of all three front end structures, it is concluded that different shapes, dimensions and materials of those components and different crushed energy elements could all be optimized and replaced to conduct further rapid design on railway vehicles that comply with requirements of ASME RT-2.