Numerical and experimental characterisation of railway riveted assemblies under quasi-static loadings

Railway manufacturers use extensively the riveting process with blind rivets for its advantages. It does not change the material properties (unlike welding) and allow to make more modular structures. Moreover, to improve safety in guided vehicles, some crash dimensionning criteria are now integrated in the design phase. It appears therefore necessary to better understand the behavior of these assemblies, which are dimensionned with empiric rules. In case of low speed shocks (like coupling), the loading can be considered as quasi-static as a first approximation. The rationalization of number, dimension and geometric distribution of the rivets is also a priority to optimize the design of riveted structures in order to preserve the interest of this assembly process. We propose a methodology based on numerical simulation of the rivetlocal behaviour, in order to extract the necessary information to put into data a macro-geometric link and its associated macroscopic rupture criterion, useful in global numerical models. After that, the methodology is verified with the test of an industrial structure part.