Numerical Investigation of the U-Steel Guard Rail Used in Train-to-Train Collision Tests

To reduce the occurrence of accidents during the train-to-train collision test, it is necessary to carry out research on derailment protection. According to the characteristics of the train-to-train collision test, a method of using a U-steel as a guard rail is proposed. The protection range of the guard rail is obtained through the geometric relationship. The protection ability and damage risks of the guard rail in different impact conditions, impact velocities, and installation positions are studied. Additionally, the section shape is optimized for multiple objectives. The results show that the guard rail can effectively reduce the lateral displacement and the rotation angle of the bogie within the protective range and protect the vehicle, but for some conditions, the damage risk of the guard rail itself is greater. The maximum stress of the optimized structure is reduced by 28.19%, which reduces the risk of damage, and the optimized guard rail still has a good protection ability.