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From April 5, 2019, to August 20, 2020, the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe) performed a series of finite element (FE) analyses of uniaxial tensile tests to calibrate material models for tank car steels (TC128) from two recent side impact tests. The material models, which...
From February to April 2014, Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) performed research and testing on a broken rim detector concept by Diesel Intellect International (DII). The detector uses proximity sensors to detect the presence of rim material overhanging the field side of the rail....
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, under the direction of the U.S. DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Research, Development, and Technology, evaluated the impacts of a program for four law enforcement agencies to...
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) conducted a side impact test on a DOT-111 tank car at the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) to evaluate its performance under dynamic impact conditions, and to provide data for the verification and refinement of a computational model. The tankcar...
With the development of new lighting technologies, such as light-emitting diodes (LED), the safety requirements stipulated in 49 CFR §229.125 may not adequately accommodate the introduction of LED lamps to the railroad industry. Consequently, it is necessary to better understand the current...
This report describes Phase I compliance testing of light-emitting diode (LED) fixtures as locomotive headlights and auxiliary lights. The purpose was to validate that all LED samples submitted by participating suppliers complied with applicable regulatory requirements and standards, and to...
The U.S. Department of Transportation Accident Prediction and Severity (APS) model has been used by Federal, State, and local authorities to assess accident risk at highway-rail grade crossings since the late 1980s. The Federal Railroad Administration funded research for the development of a new...
Transportation Technology Center, Inc. assessed the potential use of a software-defined radio to meet the current and future wireless communication needs of the U.S. railroad industry. FRA funded this project due to the high level of complexity involved in developing requirements and a preferred...
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) conducted a side impact test on a DOT-105 tank car at the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) to evaluate its performance under dynamic impact conditions and to provide data for the verification and refinement of a computational model. The tank car...
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, under the direction of the DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Office of Research, Development and Technology, studied the effects of the implementation of quiet zones on trespass accidents...