 |
Re: When Will the Feds Stop Outlawing Railcars Used By the Rest of the World?
Author: Max Wyss
Date: 07-14-2016 - 17:24
First and foremost, the impact speed in Puglia was around 200 km/h. As kinetic energy goes with the square of the speed, there is a lot of energy to be dissipated. In such situations, the result will be catastrophic, no matter how "crashworthy" the vehicles are. Period.
CEM elements do, however, still work, and reduce the acceleration, which most likely saved some people in Puglia.
Buff strength, as used by FRA has actually nothing to do with crashworthiness, because, it is a static value; the carbody gets (slowly) compressed, and there must be plastic deformation at that force level. Elastic deformation does not dissipate (much) energy. So, where does the energy go in a collision?
In any case, I do not want to know how, for example, the SMART DMUs would look after a collision with 200 km/h impact speed… (which would be roughly both trains head on with 65 mph).
Just a note: the vehicles involved in Puglia are mainline vehicles, and not "light rail".
CEM elements do, however, still work, and reduce the acceleration, which most likely saved some people in Puglia.
Buff strength, as used by FRA has actually nothing to do with crashworthiness, because, it is a static value; the carbody gets (slowly) compressed, and there must be plastic deformation at that force level. Elastic deformation does not dissipate (much) energy. So, where does the energy go in a collision?
In any case, I do not want to know how, for example, the SMART DMUs would look after a collision with 200 km/h impact speed… (which would be roughly both trains head on with 65 mph).
Just a note: the vehicles involved in Puglia are mainline vehicles, and not "light rail".
