This paper presents a brief review of the engineering activities carried out by CAF and SENER to improve the crashworthy behaviour of a new DMU vehicle, taking as the final objective, not only to account for the current International and UK standards, but also to provide occupants with the safest vehicle possible. Structural crashworthiness has been demonstrated to satisfy UK GM/RT2100 with low intrusion effects for vehicle crashes and missile strikes. The improved cab end energy absorption produces reduced and more regular deceleration pulses, and provides with an extra safety performance for passengers and crew. A studied from the beginning vehicle seat layout, and the rebuilt (in terms of impact absorption) interior components -seats, tables & cab desks- produce, as an example for the DM2 car, that 75 % of the transverse se at places result in occupant injuries lower than 80 % of the maximum allowed figures in UK AV/ST 9001 standard; while the rest 25 % places are quite proximate to that very rigorous limits, accounting for the safest occupants environment possible. Uncoupled isolated sled tests have been evidenced to be representative for all seat arrangements in this new vehicle, except in the case of a high energy demanding crash situation for Gab ends, where coupled analysis are under study to analyse the combined structural-interiors effect. However, this is a non-covered by regulations case. 1D simple models are also used to derive such a conclusion. Finally, early design stages analysis, for both structural and interiors development, have been presented, resulting in advantageous progress. This techniques, combining numerical FE simulation and controlled mechanical laboratory tests have reduced the number of trial-error iterations and the huge time consuming and expensive sled tests.
Advanced structural and interiors design of a new DMU vehicle: Reduction of occupants injuries in crash scenarios
Fortgeschrittener Struktur- und Innenraumentwurf eines neuen DMU-Fahrzeugs: Reduzierung der Verletzungen von Insassen bei verschiedenen Unfall-Szenarien
2003
13 Seiten, 10 Bilder, 2 Tabellen, 8 Quellen
Conference paper
English
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