Research on performance test procedures for petroleum road fuel tankers

The Department for Transport Dangerous Goods Division (DGD) intends to let a contract for the provision of detailed Finite Element Modelling (FEM) and Engineering Critical Assessment (ECA) of performance test procedures for technical assessments of petroleum road fuel tankers. This contract, referred to as Part C, is the subject of this Specification document, and together with Part A and Part B forms a series of research projects known collectively as WP5. It is anticipated that the outputs from WP5 will underpin UK proposals for performance-based test procedures to be included in relevant standards, a national technical code, a CEN Technical Report and/or regulations.

The summary scope of the work of Part C is to provide robust detailed FEM and ECA of petroleum road fuel tankers involving rollover, frontal, rear and side impacts, and to support the wider fuel tanker research via peer review. Rigid and articulated heavy goods vehicle tankers are in scope of this research.

The detailed scope of the work of the Part C Provider is to provide:

• Detailed Finite Element Modelling (FEM) of selected road fuel tankers designed to the ADR construction rules to determine a benchmark of performance under rollover, frontal, rear and side impacts.
• Detailed ECAs of particular failure mechanisms and predictions of structural failures and tank ruptures, capable of highlighting any deficiencies that could affect safety in accidents and under normal service conditions.