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Starfire's design and analysis experience varies from minor projects such as analyzing a six ton jib crane for load carrying capacity for a railroad supplier, to the design of an entire freight car with associated jigs and fixtures. The following two analysis techniques are the principal methods used to analyze freight cars, passenger cars, locomotives and other railroad equipment.
Starfire employs Classical Analysis techniques using proven theories and ideals of analysis to accurately reproduce or predict deformations, strains, and stresses in members of a structural system (railcar) for a given loading condition. When analyzing a railcar, we utilize the AAR M1001 specifications to determine proper loadings based on the customers specific needs. The use of classical analysis can be prohibitive when the physical system is geometrically complex.
When analyzing more complex structures, such as tank cars and other cars with curved and non-symetrical sides, computers models are built of small elements (FEA) to accurately reproduce or predict deformations, strains, and stresses. FEA is fundamentally an extension of classical analysis, using the same theories and ideals, but formulated for easy computation by computer.
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