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Fractures in the stub sills of tank cars pose a significant problem for the rail industry due to the potential for damage to the tank structure and possible release of the contents. Previous FRA research revealed that high magnitude coupling forces that occur in yard operations have the...
The Federal Railroad Administration sponsored a team from Transportation Technology Center, Inc. to conduct two investigations to improve the safety of roller bearing operations on railcars. The team conducted the research between September 2018 and April 2022 in collaboration with Burlington...
The primary objective of this research was to validate the finite element (FE) stress levels obtained during previous research through physical testing of a selected knuckle design. The validated FE model was used to investigate potential improvements in knuckle fatigue life, such as higher...
The Federal Railroad Administration contracted Transportation Technology Center, Inc. to define Interface Requirement Specification (IRS) documents for an Interoperable Train Control Automated Train Operation Support System Back Office (ITC-ATOSS BO). This project forms part of a larger...
Vertical split rim (VSR) is a serious railway wheel failure mode that requires further research. Visual clues are not usually present until the crack propagates through the rim. To better understand the root causes of VSRs, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Association of...
Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (MxV Rail) conducted a project for the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to complete the development of Operational Performance and Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) Analysis (OPRAM) tool. The team successfully developed the OPRAM...
As part of a project sponsored by FRA, 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 validation of MBO safety-critical functions...
When investigating a train derailment, vehicle/track interaction (VTI) using vehicle dynamics simulations of the key vehicles in the derailed train can help identify specific derailment causes. From September 2018 to March 2021, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) contracted Sharma &...
High-performance concrete (HPC) with early strength development is the material of choice for fabricating prestressed concrete railroad ties. However, the higher strength of HPC results in significantly higher elastic modulus values and increases the rigidity of the tie, leading to higher...
This report characterizes the amplitude and wavelength content of the current track geometry environment of the United States railroad system and examines the combination of geometric parameters for different operational conditions. The analyzed track geometry dataset consists of over 49,000...