Battelle delivers high-value, technology-oriented solutions to transportation safety and security challenges - for aviation, highway, rail, transit, homeland security, and marine clients.

OUR APPROACH

Battelle integrates unique capabilities in transportation engineering, regulatory and operations analyses, human factors, system safety, counterterrorism, and technology development and deployment of transportation systems. Our transportation safety and security experts work with federal, state, and local transportation agencies and industry to enhance highway efficiency, safety, and security for both freight and passengers. We are experts in policy, economic, and regulatory analysis; system safety analysis and evaluation; vehicle control technologies; human factors; systems engineering and integration; information technology applications (including GIS); risk assessment; and security planning and assessment.  Whether your challenge involves vehicles, infrastructure, operators, or the ways in which they interact, Battelle works with you to develop and implement a solution.

Core competencies in transportation safety and security include:

• Rail Safety - Battelle offers some of the world’s leading experts in railroad safety—from specifications and procedures to improve human performance, to wheel-rail interactions, to fully automated advanced train control systems. The Battelle team brings together a cross-section of scientific and engineering specialists to provide solutions in railroad safety for railroad operators and equipment suppliers, including:

• Hazards analysis of systems and components—preliminary hazards analysis; failure modes and effects analysis; quantitative risk assessment of train control systems and components, including addressing compliance with FRA Part 236 rules.
• Verification and validation of safety-critical components and equipment—development of safety-critical concepts; audits of safety assurance processes; safety-critical hardware and software; audit and analysis of safety-critical designs to ensure compliance with FRA Part 236 rules and industry practices.
• Investigation of component failures—mechanical, electrical, metallurgical, environmental macro- and microscopic investigation capability; construction of specialized test fixtures; specification of test and investigation procedures.
• Field instrumentation and investigation—in-field data collection packages for steel wheel-steel rail interaction characterization; analysis of field data; simulation modeling of wheel-rail interface for problem resolution.
• Independent safety assessment—safety audits and analyses; assistance in system safety certification and safety case development; safety program development; reliability, availability, and maintainability (RAM) program development and implementation.

• Roadside Safety Engineering - The Federal Highway Administration has designated Battelle as a Center of Excellence in Finite Element Crash Analysis. The Center provides safety organizations technology resources to efficiently and cost-effectively solve problems of roadside highway safety through virtual testing. Roadside safety services include:

• High-fidelity finite element modeling of dynamic events
• Vehicle and roadside safety equipment impacts
• Soil mechanics of roadside equipment and structures

• Homeland Security - Battelle serves federal agencies within the Department of Homeland Security with expertise in counterterrorism, explosives technology, security, and transportation safety, as well as experience in chemical and biological weapons detection and countermeasures for the U.S. Army and security evaluations for the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Energy. Homeland security transportation services include:

• Physical security systems
• Security technology development, testing, and evaluation
• Risk analysis and threat assessment
• Strategic planning, studies and analysis, and awareness, training, and education support
• Security policy and plans
• Security and emergency management plans and procedures
• Threat and vulnerability assessment
• Weapons detection and countermeasures
• Explosives technology
• Maritime transportation security
• Aviation safety and security
• Cargo security analysis

• Configuration Management - Battelle supported the U.S. Department of Transportation in developing innovative configuration management systems and has provided extensive human factors research and development support to the U.S. Coast Guard including studies in mariner fatigue and alertness, crew size requirements and modeling, casualty investigation procedures, mariner qualifications and training, system test and evaluation, and program planning and support. 

• Virtual Safety Testing - Battelle conducts dynamic analyses using LS-DYNA with proprietary subroutines, running on state-of-art equipment powered by the latest Intel Xeon processors and linked by a high speed Infiniband network. For full-scale impact testing, Battelle is teamed with the nearby Transportation Research Center (TRC). TRC, an approved testing center, has a long history of successful vehicle testing over a broad range of requirements.