Rail vehicle analysis and design

Analysis and design of rail vehicle components and systems, including

- Braking systems

- Draft systems

- Loading / Unloading systems

- Trucks and bogies

Car and train dynamics studies and evaluations, including bogies/trucks and suspension systems, wheel/rail interaction

Incident investigations

Train make-up studies, including simulations to identify unsafe conditions

Braking system studies, including stopping distance evaluations, inoperative brake investigations, brake application parametrics and runaway trains

Car body/component failure analysis and problem solving

Locomotive structural evaluations and design

Crash worthiness evaluations including metallurgical testing and analysis

S-580 requirements

Fatigue analysis and evaluations of rail vehicles

Damage tolerance analysis and crack growth evaluations

Safety evaluations of rail vehicles and rail facilities

Vehicle inspections for the purposes of maintenance, failure, repair or capacity evaluation

Recommendations for design or rebuild

Ride quality evaluations for rail cars and locomotives, including over-the-road testing

Wheel thermal and stress analysis per S-660

Laboratory and field testing and test design of cars, locomotives and components, including instrumentation, data acquisition and analysis

Train energy and fuel consumption studies

Analysis and implementation of strategies for rail vehicle maintenance

Reliability analysis of rail vehicles and components

Design, implementation and data analysis of wayside defect detection systems.

Failure Modes, Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA)

Development of specialized transducer systems for safety and performance monitoring of rail vehicles and systems