Evaluation Method for Crashworthiness Using Integrated Value of Deceleration of Railway Vehicles Showing High Correlation with Degree of Passenger Injury

Abstract

While standards for crashworthiness of railway vehicles have been defined in Europe and the U.S., there is no standard in Japan. Therefore, it is important to establish an evaluation method for crashworthiness of railway vehicles in Japan. The authors carried out finite element analyses under various conditions based on the statistical analysis of serious level-crossing accidents. We evaluated the mean decelerations (conforming to European standard), the maximum decelerations (U.S. standard) and integrated values of the deceleration, which are obtained from impact deceleration waveforms in the passenger area. We also performed finite element analyses of dummy's behavior and injury values using these deceleration waveforms as input. We examined the correlation between these evaluation results and dummy's injury values. As a result, we confirmed that the integrated values of the deceleration of the passenger area had the highest correlation with the dummy's injury values.