Abstract: The shock caused by the collision of railway vehicles determines the transmission of forces and accelerations to the vehicles, with unwanted consequences. In order to diminish the effects of the shock, railway vehicles are equipped with shock insulators. A personal theoretical approach is presented, completed by a series of experimental studies on the efficiency of the elastic elements of buffers and long displacement dampeners, in regards to the diminishing of the response amplitude of the mechanical system formed by the vehicles that take part in the collision.
The energy characteristics of the shock caused by collision of railway vehicles are described, a personal computation method of the force transmitted during collision, original force transducer solutions used in order to determine the force transmitted during collision.
The time evolutions of the kinematic and dynamic parameters (displacement, velocity, acceleration) of the vehicles during the shock are presented and the unwanted consequences of the shock caused by collision are discussed in regards to the resistance of the bearing structures, the equipment and the integrity of the transported freight.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Ion Copaci graduated from the "Traian Vuia" Polytechnic Institute in Timisoara, Romania, Faculty of Mechanics. He received his Ph.D. in the field of Mechanical Engineering with the thesis „Contributions on the Behaviour of the Bearing Structures of Railway Cars During the Longitudinal Shock Caused by Collision", presented at the "Politehnica" University Timisoara, Faculty of Mechanics, Department of Rolling Stock.
Technical Experience: research in the area of vibrations and shocks on railway vehicles (rolling quality, repeated shock), bearing structure resistance (lifetime, fatigue), elastic elements that equip the suspension or shock insulators of railway vehicles, torsional rigidity and travel safety, quantitative determinations (MATHAR) of the internal stresses on the bearing structures of bogies and Francis turbine rotors. Contributions and experimental research for the promotion on the railway of over 150 freight and passenger railway car prototypes, in almost 30 countries on 5 continents, as a result of over 30 years of research.
Nowadays he is a Professor at the Faculty of Engineering of "Aurel Vlaicu" University, Arad, Romania.
Field of specialization: Railway Transport Vehicles, with disciplines taught: "Dynamics of Railway Vehicles" and "Experimental Research on Railway Vehicles".
He has published over 120 research papers, 7 books and 4 inventor's licences.
He is a member of 6 societies and professional associations and he is a member of the Ukrainian Academy of Science.