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Developing performance based design guidelines for the railcar cover system

University of British Columbia

The railcar cover solution is aimed at providing an aerodynamic solution for the transport of coal. The system includes the use of a handling system that is currently under development by a third party. This study seeks to aid in the implementation of a performance based design approach to the railcar cover system. The performance based design approach is a method that utilizes modern analysis tools to provide designs that are more robust than typical prescriptive design procedures (such as the pure use of limit states in codes). A general procedure in establishing performance guidelines is provided in this study, as well as a procedure on conducting a performance based design. Also described in this study is a comparison of design configurations proposed for the cover system. Through the use of CFdesign fluid dynamics analysis software, various engineering demand parameters are measured for each railcar cover configuration including railcar flow rates and cover pressure distributions. This data are presented purely as a comparison, due to the high variability and lack of confidence inspired by validation studies. Validation studies were also presented to compare the various parameters and analysis options available with the CFdesign software, which may be used to further understand the correct implementation methods of CFdesign software for practical use.

Text

2012-10-19

Attribution 3.0 Unported

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/43514

Civil Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/