Newcastle University

Introduction

Conor O'Neill joined NewRail as a research engineer focusing on lightweight materials and structures. An aeronautical engineering graduate of the University of Limerick - Ireland, he has focused his career on the manufacture and testing of composite materials. He worked at Airbus for seven years in the composite R&D and military transport aircraft test departments.

Working in conjunction with NewRail’s industrial partners, Conor is the co-ordinator of two European FP7 projects - SecureMetro and FireResist.

Research Interests

Rail vehicle design.

Other Expertise

Current Work

Fire-Resist

Patents

International Patent WO2011012884
- Self-Correcting Crash Energy Absorber.

Patent pending: Application no. PCT/EP2011/066252

- Lightweight CompoundCab Structure for Rail Vehicles.

Projects

• SecureMetro
  Project Leader(s): Dr S Ingleton
  The aim of the SecureMetro project is to increase the safety and security of metro vehicles from terrorist attacks by explosives and firebombs through materials choices and design, thereby increasing resilience and reducing the impact of attacks...

• Carruthers J, O'Neill C, Ingleton S, Robinson M, Grasso M, Roberts J, Prockat J, Simmonds G. The design and prototyping of a lightweight crashworthy rail vehicle driver's cab. In: 9th World Congress on Railway Research. 2011, Lille, France.
• O'Neill C. TALK: Design and Analysis of a Lightweight Crashworthy Rail Vehicle Driver’s Cab. In: Seminar: Design and Testing of Rail Structures. 2009, Naples, Italy.
• O'Neill C, Carruthers JJ, Ingleton S, Robinson AM. Design and analysis of a composite energy absorbing rail cab nose cone. In: 13th European Conference on Composite Materials (ECCM 13). 2008, Stockholm, Sweden.
• Grasso G, Ingleton S, O'Neill C, Carruthers J, Penta F. Design and analysis of lightweight energy absorbers for a rail vehicle cab. In: Proceedings of the NAFEMS World Congress 2009. 2009, Crete, Greece.
• O'Neill C, Robinson AM, Ingleton S. Mitigating the Effects of Firebomb and Blast Attacks on Metro Systems. Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences 2012, 48, 3518-3527.
• O'Neill C, Robinson AM, Ingleton S. Mitigating the Effects of Firebomb and Blast Attacks on Metro Systems. In: Conference on Transport Research Arena. 2012, Athens, Greece: Elsevier BV.
• Robinson M, Carruthers J, O'Neill C, Ingleton S, Grasso M. Transport of DE-LIGHT: the design and prototyping of a lightweight crashworthy rail vehicle driver's cab. In: Conference on Transport Research Arena. 2012, Athens, Greece: Academic Press.