1323. A Semiempirical Method for Predicting Urban Railcar Structural Weight

Paper

Abstract

In most cases, comparative railcar studies consider weight in terms of weight per unit of length or weight per passenger seat.
Although dimensionally railcars vary most in length, which does make weight per unit of length an important factor for structure, length alone gives no consideration to the design loads, the materials used, or other dimensional variations. Length can at best offer only an approximation. Weight per passenger seat is even more restricted in this application, since seating configurations can be different in otherwise identical cars.
This paper provides a semi-empirical trend method for predicting structural weight from dimensions, design loads, and material factors in order to derive a more accurate value. To increase the usefulness of the trend method, only parameters that will be reasonably well known in the early design stage of a railcar have been chosen.
It is the opinion of the author that if railcar weights were more readily available in a standardized format, better methods of predicting weight would become possible for other subsystems.