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Research Results

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Summary of Charpy and Dynamic Tear Testing of Bolster Samples

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) collaborates with the Association of American Railroads’ (AAR) Coupling System and Truck Castings Committee and Transportation Technology Center, Inc. to investigate possible solutions to early-life failures of railcar side frames and bolsters. ...

Tests to Create Broken Rims in Railroad Wheels

The FRA Office of Research, Development, and Technology and the Association of American Railroads (AAR) support research conducted by Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) on the root cause of wheel-related accidents. The purpose of project was to improve wheel performance by gaining a...

Development Length Variables in Pretensioned Concrete Ties

This research, conducted from 2011 to 2015, is part of a larger project, “Quantifying the Effect of Prestressing Steel and Concrete Variables on the Transfer Length in Pretensioned Concrete Crossties,” conducted by Kansas State University (KSU) and sponsored by the Federal Railroad...

Finite Element Analysis of APTA Passenger Rail 8G Structural Seat Test

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sponsored researchers at the Volpe Center to perform finite element analyses (FEA) of 8g dynamic crash tests with a commuter rail 2-passenger seat design and Hybrid-III family anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs). The simulations analyzed (1) residual (i....

Finite Element Model Validation of THOR-50M ATD for APTA Table Test

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sponsored Volpe Center researchers to validate a publicly available finite element (FE) model of the Test device for Human Occupant Restraint 50th Percentile Male (THOR-50M) anthropomorphic test device (ATD) in LS-DYNA. The model used selected data from...

Finite Element Analysis of APTA Passenger Rail 8G Injury Seat Test

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) sponsored researchers at the Volpe Center to perform finite element analyses (FEA) of 8g dynamic crash tests using a commuter rail 2-passenger seat design with different sized Hybrid-III anthropomorphic test devices (ATDs) including: (1) 50th percentile...

Short Line Safety Institute: 2022 Systematic Review

SLSI conducts an annual analysis to assess the status of safety culture in the industry. This report summarizes findings from a systematic review of the 18 SLSI Safety Culture Assessment Reports created in 2022 and discusses industry trends in the strengths and gaps related to safety culture...

Office Safety Checker for Moving Block Train Control Systems

As part of a research project sponsored by FRA between June 2020 and May 2022, TTCI developed and analyzed a concept for the Office Safety Checker (OSC) component of the Moving Block Office (MBO), a segment of a moving block train control system concept. The OSC component performs a safety...