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U.S. Department of Transportation U.S. Department of Transportation Icon United States Department of Transportation United States Department of Transportation

Validation of Scaling Laws for Fully Developed Passenger Rail Car Fires

Document Series:
Technical Reports
Author:
  • Federal Railroad Administration
Report Number
DOT/FRA/ORD-22/23
Office
RDI-22
Subject:
Rolling Stock
Keywords:
Rail car, fire scaling, fire testing, heat release rate, HRR, heat rate release per unit area, HRRPUA rolling stock, test, compartment fire
Document

The focus of this effort was to confirm the capability of the scaling laws to predict full-scale fully-developed compartment fire heat release rates (HRR) based on reduced-scale experiments. A total of 17 compartment fire tests were conducted in this effort consisting of 14 unique configurations and three repeated tests. Tests were conducted at three scales including full-scale, half-scale, and quarter-scale. A total of five permutations of the compartment design were evaluated to demonstrate the capability with complex ventilation, combustible linings, and liquid fuels. The results indicated that the scaling approach presents a cost-effective alternative to full-scale testing of combustible linings.


Last updated: Tuesday, June 14, 2022