Fire Safety Of Passenger Trains PDF Download

Fire safety is an area of particular interest for bothconventional intercity and commuter passenger trains, and new high-speed trains. A systems approach to fire safety addresses passenger rail car design and materials, detection and suppression, passenger and train crew evacuation, and their interactions. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)is sponsoring a multi-phase research program directed at providing the scientific basis for using a systems approach to evaluate the level of passenger train fire safety already achieved through the current prescriptive material requirements. Previously published interim reports document the research program results to date. Phase I focused on the evaluation of passenger rail car interior furnishing materials using data from existing FRAcitedsmall-scale test methods and from an alternative test method using the cone calorimeter (ASTM International E-1354). In Phase II, full-scale tests were conducted of selected interior material component assemblies using alarger scale furniture calorimeter; fire hazard analyses were then conducted for three types of intercity passenger rail cars, using data from both types of tests. This Phase III interim report compares the results of Phases I and II ofthe research program, with a series of full-scale fire tests conducted in an Amtrak coach rail car. The goal of Phase III was to evaluate the extent that the results of the small- and full-scale tests and fire hazard analyses usingthe Consolidated Model of Fire and Smoke Transport (CFAST) computer model are predictive of actual passenger rail car material burning behavior.