General
Study of Bridge Approach and Track Transition Degradation: Factors and Mitigation
Efforts have been made to reduce or eliminate track geometry degradation at bridge approaches and special trackwork zones for more than a century. This is a common problem that has been reported by railroads in North America, Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia. The objective of this report...Review and Evaluation of Track Designs for Joint High Speed Rail and Heavy Freight Operations
An increasing number of railway track segments in the U. S. will soon be required to carry both high-speed passenger and heavy freight traffic. In some cases, conventional track structures (i.e., ballasted crosstie tracks) may not be adequate for both types of service. They may not be capable of...Railroad Tank Car Relief Valve Requirements for Liquid PIH Lading
Analyses were performed for the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) by Transportation Technology Center, Inc., a subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads, to determine if the changes made to Chapter 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations under docket HM-181 for the selection pressure...Locomotive Crashworthiness Impact Test No. 3: Test Procedures, Instrumentation, and Data
A full-scale impact test of a locomotive crashing into a highway trucking rig (tractor and trailer) loaded with two steel coils was conducted on a grade crossing at the FRA’s Transportation Technology Center (TTC) on December 18, 2002. This was the third of a series of locomotive crashworthiness...Locomotive Crashworthiness Impact Test No. 2: Test Procedures, Instrumentation, and Data
A full-scale locomotive impact test was performed September 10, 2002. The test involved a SD-45 locomotive, modified to meet AAR Specification S-580, and three trailing loaded hopper cars impacting a stationary log truck at a grade crossing at 50.4 mph. The locomotive broke through the logs and...Development of Advanced Methods for Theoretical Prediction of Shakedown Stress States and Physically Based Enhancement of Experimental Data: Volume III
A neural network approach to theoretical prediction of required residual stresses is considered here. Artificial neural networks trained well and long enough on residual stresses induced by various contact loads may provide very fast response. Results of numerical meshless finite difference...