Simulation of an Emergency Collision of an Electric Locomotive with

a Truck

Mikhail Vladimirovich Zhuykov

1,2

, Alexander Eduardovich Pavlyukov

Konstantin Mikhailovich Kolyasov

and Daniil Vadimovich Duvanov

1,2

Ural State University of Railway Transport, Yekaterinburg, Russia

LLC Ural Locomotives, Verkhnyaya Pyshma, Russia

Keywords: Emergency collision, electric freight locomotive, passive restraint system, finite element method, discrete

element method, bulk cargo, kinetic energy absorption, deformation, acceleration.

Abstract. The article presents a real case of a collision of an electric locomotive with a truck that was transporting

crushed stone, as a result of which it led to tragic consequences. Numerical modeling combined on the basis

of the finite element method and the discrete element method made it possible to evaluate the effect of bulk

cargo located at the time of collision in the back of a truck on irreversible deformations of the driver's cab,

destruction of glazing, absorption of impact energy, as well as accelerations at the driver's seat installation

places. The numerical modeling technique takes into account the geometric and physical nonlinearity of the

object of study. Particles of bulk cargo are considered as solid bodies with unchangeable geometry. The

deformation of the system occurs due to deformations at the points of contact between the particles. The

results of the study can be used to make changes to the power frame of the driver's cab of operated electric

locomotives in order to avoid tragic consequences and preserve the life and health of the locomotive crew.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the work (Krasyukov, 2020) and article

(Krasyukov, 2014), the number of emergency

collisions of railway rolling stock on public tracks for

2001 to 2008 inclusive is given, where it is indicated

that more than 72% of all collisions occur at

unguarded railway crossings, 10% at guarded railway

crossings, 17% with wagons during shunting work,

1% – with other obstacles.

Collisions of railway transport with trucks happen

very often. Trucks often transport crushed stone, sand

or other bulk cargo, therefore, when an electric

locomotive collides with trucks, not only material

damage to the rolling stock can be caused, but also

damage to the health of the locomotive crew, and

sometimes injuries incompatible with life in the

electric locomotive directly at the time of the

collision.

A striking example of the above is the case of a

collision that occurred on October 23, 2021 with a

freight electric locomotive 3ES5K "Ermak"

(Zapovednaya highway, https://zen.yandex.ru), as a

result of which the driver's assistant died from his

injuries, the consequences of the collision are shown

in Fig. 1.

The above case shows that it is necessary to

minimize the injury of the locomotive crew, as well

as to exclude the death of the locomotive crew in case

of emergency collisions of electric freight

locomotives. Reducing injuries and eliminating the

death of the locomotive crew is possible due to a

workable passive restraint system used on newly

produced freight electric locomotives, as well as in

the modernization of driver's cabs on operated freight

electric locomotives manufactured in the Russian

Federation (RF).

The object of the study is the driver's cabin of an

electric freight locomotive with glazing.

In this article, the authors conduct a study of the

collision of an electric locomotive with a truck, in the

body of which there is a bulk cargo, and evaluate

deformations, energy intensity and longitudinal

accelerations (in places where the driver's seats are

installed) for the driver's cab of an electric locomotive

based on numerical modeling in order to assess the

performance of the passive restraint system.

In numerical modeling, the authors combine two

methods: the finite element method and the discrete

Zhuykov, M., Pavlyukov, A., Kolyasov, K. and Duvanov, D.

Simulation of an Emergency Collision of an Electric Locomotive with a Truck.

DOI: 10.5220/0011582500003527

In Proceedings of the 1st International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Transport: Logistics, Construction, Maintenance, Management (TLC2M 2022), pages 253-259

ISBN: 978-989-758-606-4

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

253

element method. The combination of these methods

makes it possible to assess the impact of bulk cargo

located at the time of collision in the truck body on

irreversible deformations of the driver's cab,

destruction of glazing, absorption of impact energy,

as well as accelerations at the driver's seat installation

places.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

The main approaches and provisions to the concepts

of passive restraint systems (PRS) for passenger

trains of locomotive traction are considered in

(Sobolevskaya, 2015; Tyrell, 2005). The main design

solution of PRS for modern freight electric

locomotives manufactured in the territory of the

Russian Federation is presented in (Zhuykov, 2022).

The main design solution of PRS for modern

freight electric locomotives manufactured in the

territory of the Russian Federation is shown in Fig. 2.

The weakest point in the existing PRS is the

driver's cab due to the fact that at the moment the

current domestic standards do not take into account

the variety of scenarios in emergency collisions, in

contrast to European and American standards for

crash tests, and, therefore, need to be improved.

The authors of this article for the study of an

emergency collision took an obstacle in the form of a

truck with the following dimensions: length 6600 mm

(6.600 m), width 2500 mm (2.500 m), height 2975

mm (2.975 m). The weight of the truck is 24558 kg

(24.558 tons), the weight of the bulk cargo is 22388

kg (22.388 tons), the weight of the electric

locomotive is 200,000 kg (200 tons). The initial speed

of the collision is 72 km/h (20 m/s).

The structure of the model of a two-section

electric locomotive, shown in Fig. 3, for collision

research based on numerical modeling consists of the

following components: two bodies, four trolleys, two

modular cabins, body-to-trolley connections,

intersectional coupling, railway track, obstacle.

When setting the problem, initial conditions are

set, it is assumed that the material of the electric

locomotive is not deformed at the initial moment, all

the components of the electric locomotive move at the

same speed in the same direction. While all the rail

nodes and obstacles are at rest. In addition, the

Figure 1: Consequences of the collision between 3ES5K (Ermak) electric locomotive and truck on October 23, 2021:

(

)

eneral view after the collision,

(

)

view of the cab of the electric locomotive after the collision.

ure 2: The main desi

n solution of the PRS of modern domestic frei

ht electric locomotives.

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volumetric forces due to the acceleration of gravity

are set.

To model the bulk cargo, the discrete element

method was used, which was developed by Kandall

in 1971 to analyze problems related to the rock

mechanics.

Assumptions were used in the calculation

(Larsson, 2014):

1. Particles are treated as solids with

unchangeable geometry. The deformation of

the system occurs due to deformations at the

points of contact between the particles.

2. Particle-particle contact occurs at the points of

contact.

3. A contact is used that allows a slight overlap at

the contact points. The overlap is small

compared to the particle size, movement and

rotation of the particles.

4. Only at the points of contact is there any

interaction between the particles. The time step

is small enough, allowing only the force from

the particle to its contact particles.

5. Newton's second law of motion is used to

determine the motion of solid particles,

acceleration and velocity are constant at each

time step.

6. The time step allows the disturbance to

propagate only to the nearest neighboring

particle, the forces acting on the particle are

determined only by the interaction with the

contacting particles.

To study an emergency collision based on

numerical simulation, the ANSYS 2022R1

calculation complex with the LS-DYNA R12.0 solver

was used (Livermore Software Technology

Corporation (LSTC), 2018; Livermore Software

Technology Corporation (LSTC), 2018), the finite

element method and the discrete element method with

an explicit integration scheme were chosen, the

geometric and physical nonlinearity of the object of

study was taken into account. Shell finite elements

were used for the body of the electric locomotive,

modular cab, trolley frames, obstacles and rails; for

wheelset axles - three-dimensional hexahedral finite

elements; for the suspension of the chassis, one-

dimensional finite elements were used, which allow

simulating a linear elastic-dissipative connection

between two nodes; and distributed mass elements for

equipment, locomotive crew. The number of one-

dimensional elements used was: beam – 72, spring

and damper – 134; elements of distributed mass – 2;

three-dimensional hexahedral finite elements - 2600;

shell finite elements -289115; discrete elements - 227.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In case of an emergency collision of an electric

locomotive with a truck, in the body of which there is

a bulk cargo, irreversible deformations of the driver's

cab and the body of the electric locomotive occur.

Irreversible deformations of the driver's cab and the

electric locomotive body are shown in Fig. 4 (a), 4

(b), 4 (c), 4 (d) for four values of the physical collision

time: 0.05 sec., 0.10 sec., 0.15 sec., 0.20 sec.,

respectively. The movement of bulk cargo when an

electric locomotive collides with a truck is shown in

Fig. 5 (a), 5(b), 5(c), 5 (d) for four values of the

physical collision time: 0.05 sec., 0.10 sec., 0.15 sec.,

0.20 sec., respectively.

As a result of the collision of an electric

locomotive with a truck, in the body of which there

was a bulk cargo, the glazing of the driver's cabin was

Figure 3: Structure of an electric locomotive model for collision study based on numerical simulation.

Simulation of an Emergency Collision of an Electric Locomotive with a Truck

255

Figure 4: Study results: (a) irreversible deformations at a time of 0.05 seconds, (b) irreversible deformations at a time of 0.10

seconds, (c) irreversible deformations at a time of 0.15 seconds, (d) irreversible deformations at a time of 0.20 seconds.

Figure 5: Study results: (a) movement of bulk cargo at a collision time of 0.05 seconds, (b) movement of bulk cargo at a

collision time of 0.10 seconds, (c) movement of bulk cargo at a collision time of 0.15 seconds, (d) movement of bulk cargo

at a collision time of 0.20 seconds.

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Figure 6: Destruction of the glazing of the driver's cab according to the simulation results at a collision time of 0.2 seconds.

destroyed from the side of the driver's assistant,

visually shown in Fig. 6 at the time of the physical

collision time of 0.20 seconds.

According to the results of numerical simulation

of an emergency collision of an electric locomotive

with a truck, in the body of which there is a bulk

cargo, the dependences of kinetic energy absorption

and accelerations in the places of installation of the

driver's seats on time are obtained. The absorption of

kinetic energy in an emergency when an electric

locomotive collides with a truck without bulk cargo

was 0.064 MJ, and with bulk cargo – 0.324 MJ.

The results of numerical simulation of an

emergency collision showed that the power frame of

the driver's cab meets the safety requirements, the vital

space for the locomotive crew is preserved, the

acceleration in the driver's seats did not exceed

75 m/s

Graphs of absorbed kinetic energy are shown in

Fig. 7 (a), accelerations at the driver's seat installation

places in Fig. 7 (b) and in Table 1.

4 CONCLUSIONS

The authors of the article present a real case of a

collision of an electric locomotive with a truck that

was transporting crushed stone, as a result of which it

led to tragic consequences.

The article presents a methodology for

investigating an emergency collision of an electric

freight locomotive based on numerical modeling,

taking into account the geometric and physical

nonlinearity of the object of study using the finite

element method and the discrete element method.

The values of irreversible deformations, absorbed

energy, accelerations in the places where the driver's

seats are installed in an emergency collision are

determined.

The application of the finite element method

together with the discrete element method makes it

possible to assess the destruction of the glazing of the

driver's cab of an electric freight locomotive.

Table 1: Results of an emergency collision study based on numerical simulation of an emergency collision of an electric

locomotive with a truck.

Type of collision Without bulk cargo With bulk cargo

Cabin deformation, mm 23.4 10,6

Absorption of kinetic energy, MJ 0.64 0.324

Acceleration at the

laces where the driver's seats are installed, m/s

59.42 73.95

Obstacle mass, tons 24.558 46.946

Initial collision s

eed, km/h 72

The height of the upper

oint of the obstacle from the LRH, mm 3.370 2.900

Simulation of an Emergency Collision of an Electric Locomotive with a Truck

257

(a)

(b)

Figure 7: Study results: (a) absorbed kinetic energy, (b) accelerations in the places where the driver's seats are installed.

The results of the study can be used to improve

drivers' cabins when modeling emergency collisions

for electric locomotives of other series in operation,

which require a reduction in irreversible deformations

to preserve vital space for the survival of the

locomotive crew and not exceed accelerations in the

places where the driver's seats are installed 75 m/s

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Railway rolling stock, train traction and electrification.

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