SBIR-STTR Award

Additional passenger fatalities and injuries can occur during derailments due to interaction with wayside structures, such as catenary poles, bridge abutments, and discontinuities in third rails at highway grade crossings. Resilient wayside structures can reduce these risks, by lessening the amount of intrusion, penetration, and passenger motion. PEC and Arup will work together to develop resilient wayside structure concept designs, based on reducing stiffness and strength, incorporating energy absorbing mechanisms and allowing failure to occur in a controlled and predictable manner. Novel materials and structural configurations will be devised and assessed, with consideration of maintenance requirements, environmental effects, and impact on daily operations. This project will encompass an assessment of wayside structure risk, development of resilient wayside structure concepts, engineering analysis, numerical simulations, and preliminary test planning.

Additional passenger fatalities/injuries can occur during derailments involving interaction with wayside structures. Analogously, automobile fatalities often result from interaction of vehicles with roadside structures; personnel hazard reduction is a key design criterion for roadside structures. A similar approach for railroad wayside structures can be followed by incorporating damage mitigating features into new designs and retrofits of existing wayside structures. During Phase I, a risk study was first conducted to identify 3 wayside structures that pose a relatively high damage/injury risk to commuter railcars and passengers: bumper stops, catenary poles, and barrier wall discontinuities. Damage mitigation concepts were then devised and feasibility established through high-fidelity numerical modeling. While all proposed concepts were deemed viable and effective, the most promising concept was determined to be a catenary pole breakaway capability. Phase II research will focus on establishing proof-of-concept and developing preliminary design guidance for the catenary pole breakaway connection. This will be achieved through an experimental test program involving static slip tests, static lateral load tests, and dynamic impact tests, and complemented with additional high-fidelity numerical modeling of both a catenary pole and entire OLE support structure. A roadmap for market delivery will also be identified through the development of a robust commercialization strategy.