Novel Design for Passenger Railcar Retention Systems

Additional passenger fatalities and injuries can occur in rollover-type derailment accidents due to failures of glazing retention mechanisms on passenger railcars. A key failure mode is shearing off the external rubber gasket that secures the glazing panes as the side of the railcar drags along the ground. Once the gasket fails, the glazing pane is pushed inside, leaving an opening that passengers can be ejected, often fatally, out of the railcar. During Phase I, the project team identified several design solutions for emergency and non-emergency railcar window applications. A “best” concept for each application was down-selected with the DOT for further investigation. Highfidelity finite element models of the two concepts were developed and it was demonstrated that the proposed designs perform better than the baseline window design used today. Phase II research and development will establish proof-of-concept of the two novel window securement methods. This will be achieved through an experimental program involving tests on specimens replicating the railcar body in the vicinity of a window opening to determine the load to dislocate the glazing out of the railcar body frame. Testing will be complemented with high-fidelity analysis. Also, a roadmap for market delivery will be also developed to guide commercialization activities.