Evaluation of mitigating deformation of carbody structure for railway vehicle by adopting replaceable crash-energy absorbing structure

Abstract

Nowadays, an aluminum alloy carbody structure is prevalent in railway vehicles by their lighter weight compared with a steel carbody structure. However, in the event of a collision with a truck at a level crossing, the carbody of a railway vehicle made of aluminum alloy may undergo significant deformation, and a relatively long time is needed to repair because more processes are needed comparing to carbody structure made of steel, so that the method to shorten time to repair railway vehicle is required. In this paper, we propose a carbody structure that incorporates replaceable crash-energy absorbing structures at the front. In the event of a collision, the replaceable crash-energy absorbing structure is primarily deformed, resulting in reducing the collision energy transferred to the main frame of the carbody and mitigating deformation. Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis demonstrates that car body structure adopting the replaceable crash-energy absorbing structure mitigates deformation in the main frame of the carbody structure in railway vehicle.