Containment capacity and estimation of crashworthiness of derailment containment walls against high-speed trains

Abstract

Europe, USA, China, Japan, and Korea, which possess advanced railway technologies, have attempted to develop high-speed rail technology and ensure safety based on social requirements and the need for greater speeds. However, despite these efforts, there have been recent reports of train accidents resulting in loss of lives. Fatal train accidents usually involve derailments or collisions that do not happen frequently. However, when they occur, the damage is catastrophic. Therefore, a protection infrastructure should be installed to minimize such damage. Since the high-speed railways were introduced in Korea, derailment containment walls have been constructed to mitigate and minimize the damages caused by such accidents. The need for the judgment of effectiveness and feasibility review of the derailment containment walls in terms of economics and construction ability has been presented by designers and constructors. In this paper, the authors have evaluated the containment capacity and collision durability (crashworthiness) of a derailment containment wall, constructed in Korea, using a collision simulation after the derailment of a train.

Impact Force Evaluation of the Derailment Containment Wall for High‐Speed Train through a Collision Simulation

“…is analysis model developed in the preceding research [2] was verified by several methods. For the numerical verification about energy balance before and after collision of the train, simulations were performed for a collision accident scenario (i.e., a head-on collision accident scenario) of the railroad cars defined by Railroad Safety Act [4].…”

“…ere are representative accidents that would occur if a derailed train collided with an overbridge or a surrounding building or two trains crashed into each other and then fell under a bridge substructure [2]. e main factors are the spread and amplification of secondary damage by the behavior after the derailments (primary damage).…”

“…In the previous research [2], we developed the 3D collision simulation model after train derailment. In this paper, using this collision simulation model, various installation situations of the containment wall were considered by the parameters (location and height of the wall) that affect the impact force and containment effects of the containment walls.…”

“…In other words, if secondary collisions with surrounding buildings by a derailed train are prevented, the damage would be mitigated or minimized. In addition, if the secondary derailment resulting from a collision between trains or falling under a bridge is prevented, the damage would be significantly reduced or minimized [1,2].…”

“…However, it is also necessary to consider the physical means needed to reduce/minimize damage by unexpected accidents such as natural disasters or man-made hazards. is is a concept of protection for derailed trains [1,2].…”