Gongxun Deng

Moose herd–train collisions represent one of the potential hazards that railway operations must contend with, making the assessment of passive train safety in such scenarios a crucial concern. This study analyzes the responses of bullet trains colliding with moose herds and investigates the influence of various factors under these conditions. To achieve this goal, a multibody (MB) model was developed using the MADYMO platform. The displacement of the moose’s center of gravity (CG) was employed to assess the safety boundaries, while the relative positions between the wheels and rails were used to evaluate the risk of derailment. The findings revealed that the collision forces exhibited multi-peak characteristics that were subsequently transmitted to the wheel–rail contact system, resulting in disturbances in the relative positions of the wheels and rails. However, these disturbances did not reach a level that would induce train derailment. Furthermore, larger moose herds exhibited higher throw heights, although these heights remained within safe limits and did not pose a threat to overhead lines. The primary safety risk in moose–train collisions stemmed from secondary collisions involving moose that had fallen onto the tracks and oncoming trains. This study offers valuable insights for enhancing the operational safety of high-speed trains and safeguarding wildlife along railway corridors.

Analysis of pedestrians’ head and lower limb injuries at the tissue level is lacking in studies of tram–pedestrian collisions. The purpose of this paper therefore to investigate the impact response process and severity of pedestrians’ injuries in tram–pedestrian collisions, using the Total Human Model for Safety (THUMS) pedestrian human body model together with the tram FE model. Two full-scale tram–pedestrian dummy crash tests were performed to validate the FE model, and the total correlation and analysis (CORA) score of head acceleration yielded values of 0.840 and 0.734, confirming a strong agreement between the FE-simulated head responses and the experimental head kinematics. The effects of different tram speeds and impact angles on pedestrians’ impact response injuries and the differences were further analyzed. The results indicate that direct impact of the lower limb with the tram’s obstacle deflector leads to lower limb bone shaft fractures and knee tissue damage. Neck fling contributed to worsened head injury. Coup contusions were the predominant type of brain contusion, surpassing contrecoup contusions, while diffuse axonal injury was mainly concentrated in the collision-side region of the brain. Pedestrians’ injuries are influenced by tram velocity and impact angle: higher tram velocities increase the risk of lower limb and head injuries. The risk of head injury for pedestrians is higher when the impact angle is negative, while lower limb injuries are more significant when the impact angle is 0°. This study provides practical guidance for enhancing tram safety and protecting pedestrians.

It is a challenge to efficiently and accurately predict train dynamic responses during complex collisions. In this paper, a novel numerical simplification method for high-speed rail vehicles during complex impact configurations is proposed. The central section of high-speed rail vehicles is a sandwich corrugated hollow double-shell structure. Starting with a baseline detailed finite element (FE) model of a high-speed train, the central section was first simplified as a solid single-shell structure. A parametric study with various simplification thickness ratios of the simplified FE rail vehicle model in different longitudinal rigid-wall collisions and lateral rigid-cylinder impacts was then performed using LS-DYNA. Furthermore, a correlation and analysis (CORA) objective rating method was used to evaluate the related responses between the simplified and detailed baseline FE rail vehicle models. The results demonstrate that the simplified FE model could effectively predict the rail vehicle impact responses. The displacement and impact force time histories of the simplified vehicle model with a thickness ratio of 0.38 matched closely with the results of the baseline detailed FE model under both longitudinal and lateral impacts (total combined CORA rating score: 93%). The rail vehicle impact deformations of the simplified vehicle model were similar to those of the baseline detailed model. The application of the simplified vehicle FE model substantially reduced the computational time (approximately 55% reduction). This work provides a solid basis for efficiently exploring train impact responses in complex collisions, and will be especially useful for train occupant injury assessment.