Effect of crash energy distribution on the dynamic behavior of train collisions

In order to study the effect of the interfacial forces and strokes of energy absorbing devices and intermediate couplers on the responses of train collisions, a longitudinal multi-body dynamic model of train collisions was developed. The collision scenario between two identical train units was employed to contrastively analyze dynamic responses of the trains with different energy distribution schemes. The results show that there is an optimal value for the stroke of energy absorbing devices mounted on cab ends. The accelerations of vehicles decrease with the increasing stroke which is less than the optimal value at the later stage of collisions. The increased interfacial force of the energy absorbing device can obviously increase the accelerations of intermediate vehicles. The accelerations of intermediate vehicles increase for the case of the synchronously decreased interfacial forces of all intermediate couplers. The interfacial forces of intermediate couplers decreasing inward or in descending order can result in the increase of the absorbed energy of intermediate interfaces. The incremental forces of intermediate interfaces can lead to the increase of the absorbed energy of cab ends, and the first peak acceleration of intermediate vehicles increases in this case.