DETERMINATION OF CAR BODY CENTER PLATE FATIGUE DESIGN CRITERIA BY FULL-SCALE CAR TESTING

Fatigue design criteria are established based on full-scale car tests conducted on a 100-ton Southern Railway Hopper car. Stress levels on body center plate and its attachments to the car were determined for static car loading by means of jacking, for standing car dynamic loading under a full roll mode received on AAR rock and roll environmental prepared track testing. Correlation of determined stress loadings leads to three proposed axioms for design criteria.