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<p>[quote user="CMStPnP"]</p> <p> </p> <div class="quote-header"> </div> <blockquote class="quote"> <div class="quote-user">BaltACD</div> <div class="quote-content">How many times have we been regaelled by various posters over the years that US car construction standards are archaic and should be changed to the lighter duty European 'soda can' standards in the interests of saving weight.</div> </blockquote> <div class="quote-footer"> </div> <p> </p> <p>I have never advocated that and in fact I think it is really dumb if your in a trainset that is sharing ROW with heavy freight trains to start attempting to make the car lighter and less crash worthy.</p> <p>If your operating on a dedicated ROW for passenger trains only....different story.</p> <div style="clear:both;"> </div> <p>[/quote]</p> <p>There are accident scenarios that can overburden the best crashworthiness design.</p> <p>Overall the European crashworthiness design is at least as good as the American. Or why do you think FRA adopted it for Tier 2 passenger equipment. The buff loads can always be adopted.</p> <p>The difference is: The American standard tries to make vehicles as rigid as possible, a design you perhaps wouldn't accept in your car.</p> <p>The European standard follows the automobile design. There are crumple zones in unoccupied areas that reduce the forces with CEM elements to a level that the occupant zones have to withstand. The remaining buff force is about 337,200 lbs. The CEM elements can be designed to reduce the American 800,000 lbs buff load to the European 337,200 lbs. Among the CEM elements are pushback couplers. The first car takes 75% of the crash energy the remaining cars 25%.</p> <p>Before you judge you should perhaps read this FRA publication with the results of American simulations comparing the different designs: <a href="https://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/2125">https://www.fra.dot.gov/Elib/Document/2125</a></p> <p>Especially interesting is Table 1 on page 3 summarizing the simulation results.</p> <p>The EN 15227 was developed by analysing 900 accident reports. The chosen design level covers 80% of these accidents acknowleging that not all accidents can be handled.<br />Regards, Volker</p> <p> </p>
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