Frazer-Nash Consultancy > Case study - Kowloon Canton Rail KCRC

The Brief

The Kowloon-Canton Railway is a busy metro railway system, daily handling considerable volumes of passengers safely and effectively. Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) identified a requirement to increase the speed at which passengers could get on and off its trains at stations. KCRC approached its train manufacturer, Alstom Transport Limited, to find out if extra doors could be installed in the existing design.

Frazer-Nash Consultancy was commissioned by Alstom to assess the design of the railway vehicles and establish whether additional door portals could be cut into the body shell without reducing the structural integrity below an acceptable level.

Structural Integrity Assessment

Structural integrity assessment (SIA) is a key part of ensuring safe and economic operation of plant, equipment and systems. SIA is built upon a full knowledge of the loads sustained by the structure and the methods of construction employed combined with an understanding of the local stress environment and the behaviour of the materials used.

Frazer-Nash is highly experienced in performing structural integrity assessments both in support of new design projects and to investigate existing designs and was well qualified to undertake this work.

Modelling and Analysis

Frazer-Nash used the existing design information for the body shell – comprising three door portals per side – to construct a finite element analysis (FEA) model of an appropriate portion of the vehicle structure and then added in the proposed revisions – an additional two door portals per side.

Conclusion and Implementation

As a result of the structural integrity assessment and the FEA modelling, Frazer-Nash was able to conclude that the number of doors could be increased safely from three to five per side. The vehicle design was amended to incorporate these extra doors and the vehicles were modified. These new improvements delivered benefits for both KCRC and passengers alike by improving operating efficiency and making it safer and quicker to board trains at stations.