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This report examines the feasibility of and recommends an acoustical specification for such an optimized horn. The detectability of the horn signal for motorists inside vehicles, the areas of environmental noise impact and occupational noise exposure have been compared for the optimized horn and...
Researchers developed new concepts of train control systems that could potentially offset the negative impacts to train operations introduced by the current implementation of PTC (Overlay PTC). They investigated the effects on railroad network operation caused by the operation of PTC, such as...
Engineers identified potential hazards associated with the use of an adaptive braking enforcement algorithm, quantified risks, and determined potential risk reduction strategies. This report describes the work performed to address the potential causes of safety hazards that differ between...
Future advanced Positive Train Control systems may allow North American railroads to introduce moving blocks with shorter train headways. This research examines how closely following trains respond to different throttle and brake inputs. Using insights from connected automobile and truck...
Researchers collaborated with a railroad advisory group to demonstrate the validity of a track circuit concept that supports the Quasi-Moving Block (QMB) method of train control. They performed proof-of-concept testing, capacity analysis, hazard analysis, and requirements development. ...
This report presents the results and findings from a testing program conducted to investigate how wheel temperature may affect wheel surface performance, i.e., the development of rolling contact fatigue (RCF) and wear from November 2019. Under this testing program, a twin disc test machine was...
Researchers developed a model to predict the life of a freight railroad car wheel due to rolling contact fatigue, crack initiation and growth leading to fracture. The Phase I effort includes a literature survey, an estimation of hoop residual stress from manufacturing process, and the effects of...
An impact test with a F40 locomotive and a M1 passenger car was conducted to evaluate the performance of the vehicles under dynamic conditions. The locomotive was retrofitted with crash energy management (CEM) components – including a push-back coupler (PBC), deformable anti-climbers, and a...
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...
On June 11, 2020, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) conducted a side impact test on a surrogate DOT-113 tank car filled with water at the Transportation Technology Center (TTC) to (1) evaluate its performance under dynamic impact conditions and (2) provide data for the verification and...