Issue 33

R. Sepe et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 33 (2015) 451-462; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.33.50 452 To obtain static structural behaviour of the railway vehicles, i.e., stress and strain distribution, different static loading cases defined in standards such as UIC CODE OR 577 and ERRI B12/RP17 [3-4] can be used in FE analyses. In recent years there has been an increased effort to investigate and improve the crashworthiness of passenger and freight rail vehicles by using FEM simulation. Several approach can be used to investigate the crashworthiness: simplified one- dimensional models can be used to evaluate interactions between vehicles. Kirkpatrick et al. [5] presented a comparison of the various experimental, analytical, and computational approaches to evaluate rail vehicle crashworthiness. The experimental approaches include static and dynamic testing of vehicles and components using scale model and full-scale structures. Similarly, a wide range of analyses were performed to evaluate various aspects of rail vehicle crashworthiness. Lewis et al. [6] describe development work in the area of crashworthiness of railway vehicles carried out during a four year period in the UK. Specific areas of investigation include vehicle overriding and the collision behaviour of complete trains or rakes of vehicles. Hosseini-Tehrani and Bayat [7] conducted a systematic study to examine possible strategies to design a crashworthy ladder frame for the passenger train that behaves well under frontal impact conditions. For this purpose, various combinations of triggers and energy absorber members in one end of a ladder frame are studied and the improved design is proposed. Caputo et al. [8] analyse the global crash behaviour of a railway vehicle involved in an accident to characterize the possible deformations, the kinematics and the dynamics behaviour of interiors and passengers. Such analyses are necessary to determine the biomechanical indexes to characterize the passive safety performance of the interior components. Caputo et al [9-10] moreover study the causes and the typologies of secondary impact injuries suffered by passengers of a railway vehicle during a crash event. In particular, the installation of seatbelt has been investigated as a suitable system to restrain the passengers and different structural analyses of the seat, by means of finite element simulations, have been undertaken to determine if a stiffening of the seat is required to sustain those overloads. The MADYMO® code has been adopted to perform the preliminary MultiBody (MB) analyses which are required to calibrate and to evaluate the relevant parameters of dummy-seat contact surfaces and of seat-belt stiffness, while LS DYNA® code has been used for the structural dynamic FE analyses. Lamanna and Sepe [11] analyse the energy absorbing capability of dedicated structural components made of a carbon fiber reinforced polymer and an emulsion polymerised styrene butadiene rubber. Static and dynamic numerical analyses are performed and numerical results are compared with experimental ones in terms of mean crushing forces, energy and peak crushing. In this study are presented evaluations of static stress states, buckling and vibrational behaviours for an innovative roof structure of a railway freight refrigerated car. The global trading of perishable goods is possible thanks to product refrigeration and atmospheric control during transportation. The refrigerated railway freights are subject to very severe performance requirements because of the need to carry an enormous variety of cargoes under wide variations of climatic conditions and, as refrigerated transportation has increased, there has been substantial interest in improving energy consumption by reducing weight, and improving insulation and distribution system [12]. One of the aims of this paper is to describe the engineering development of a refrigerated railway freight car for transporting of goods and to evaluate the stress states under different static loading cases defined in standards such as EN 12663, UIC CODE OR 577 and ERRI B12/RP17. As a result of the relevant simulations, structural characteristics and structural weaknesses of the design are determined. R AILWAY “GABS” FREIGHT REFRIGERATED CAR railway standard freight car called “GABS” used by Austrian Federal Railways (German: Österreichische Bundesbahnen, ÖBB), Hungarian State Railways (Hungarian: Magyar Államvasutak, MÁV), National Society of French Railways (Société nationale des chemins de fer français SNCF) and National society of Italian railways “Trenitalia” was examined in this study. The GABS car is being used Europe-wide. Various batches of this car with different doors and roofs have been produced over the time, and lots of different liveries have been realized. Principal GABS freight car dimensions are shown in Fig. 1. The wagon is used for the carriage of packed and other goods requiring protection against atmospheric impact, with the exception of animals and loose goods. The wagon allows the introduction of mechanization in loading and unloading activities. The skeleton of the body is a welded structure composed of rolled and shaped metals. The wall covering of the body consists of water-resistant plywood, 15 mm thick for the side walls and 25 mm for the front walls. A