Introduction/Purpose

Europe’s railway industries require a step change in technologies and design for the next generation of railway vehicles in order to remain competitive globally. One way is use of composite materials that can reduce the weight of railway vehicles. Safety regulations for fire, smoke & toxicity requirements in the railway sector limits which materials that can be used for the composites and require special flame-retardant additives. The mechanical properties need to be asserted to reach the demands given by railway standards such as EN 12663. These standards are written for metallic materials requiring adaptation when designing and testing with composite materials.

To address this, the EU funded project Mat4Rail – “Designing the railway of the future: Fire resistant composite materials and smart modular design” have been formed. It is part of the Shift2Rail program.

Methods

To find composites that meet the demands for fire safety and high mechanical strength, different combinations of resins and fibers are tested. The resins that are investigated are epoxies, benzoxazines and hybrid chemistry together with additives for enhanced fire performance. The fibers that are investigated are carbon, glass and basalt.

The manufactured composite combinations are tested for reaction to fire EN 45545-2 and fire resistance EN 45545-3. The composites with the best fire-performance results are then further characterized for mechanical properties. A crucial property is the fatigue strength which is performed to harmonize with EN 12663-1 that is written with metals in mind. Several types of static tests are also performed.

Another topic is adhesive joints for composites that also are investigated for fire performance and mechanical properties. Results Composites reaching higher hazard levels of EN 45545-2 are developed. For these are static strengths and SN-curves determined.

Conclusions

It is shown that composite material can be used for railway applications e.g. carbodyshell parts.