Review of the Euro Code Crash Wall Requirements in the North American Context: Case Study
(Room Sagamore 2)
19 Sep 17
3:30 PM
-
4:00 PM
Tracks:
AREMA Technical Sessions- Structures, REMSA
With constantly increasing urbanization and demand for increased capacity on existing railway corridors, the demand for crash protection between railway tracks and adjacent facilities is also increasing. Given the impractical nature of full scale derailment modeling or field testing, it is necessary to take a different approach to establishing design guidelines for these crash structures. The goal of this paper is to review the EuroCode (EC) approach for the design of a crash wall (CW) and to compare the same with recent North American approaches and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) derailment records. The design methods of the EC are first reviewed and secondly modified in the context of the North American freight rail network and equipment. Specifically, modifications are required to account for the different railway car weights and lengths, typical train speeds, and volume of traffic. The paper will then review previous studies and approaches used in North America, and present some relevant derailment records. The EC approach is compared with these approaches. Finally, a case study is presented to evaluate the design requirements of the EC for a typical application: an overhead bridge spans a single track railroad with slender columns located beyond the required 25ft (7.62m) clearance for CW; when the line is doubled the new re-aligned tracks are now 18ft (5.49m) away from the supporting overhead roadway bridge and, according to AREMA, CW structures are now required for these slender columns. The EC approach is thus applied to determine the cost-benefit ratio of such a CW. The findings of the EC approach are discussed and tend to indicate that CW construction may not always be required depending on the design track speed, the presence of a switch near the bridge location, and the train traffic volume.