A recent Spanish survey reveals that opposite to vehicle and
pedestrian accidents, motorcycle fatalities have increased in the
last 7 years. One third of these correspond to collisions of
motorcyclists against roadside guardrails. In response to this
serious safety demand, manufacturers and governments in Spain and
France have started their own initiatives in both, launching smart
road restraint systems safer for vulnerable users, and developing
new protocols and regulations to evaluate the behavior of these
systems against motorcyclist collisions.
In order to provide support to roadside guardrails manufacturers
to fulfill these regulations and develop friendly systems for
motorcyclist, Applus IDIADA is carrying out a project to develop a
robust methodology to create CAE simulation models that represent
these impacts. This paper resumes the work done during the first
phase of this project, which consisted on correlate two impact
tests performed at IDIADA testing facilities following Spanish
regulation UNE 135900: "Post Centered Impact" and
"Mid Span Centered Impact," both at 60 kph and following
an impact trajectory of 30° respect to the barrier. The barrier
tested and simulated had a deformable continuous system, to absorb
impact energy and redirect the rider on the road. A detailed model
of the barrier was developed using a commercial explicit CAE code,
including fixings and correlated material properties. A Hybrid III
dummy model was employed positioned leaning on its back, orientated
30° respect to the barrier, and wearing a motorcycling helmet.
Signals measured on the neck of the virtual dummy were compared
to those measured on real tests, and in most cases clearly
represented the same kinematics and dynamics of real dummy, during
the first 30 ms of the impact, when the highest values were
reached. Once a feasible virtual model of the test was defined,
simulation allows modifying parameters that constitute the test
like dummy's speed, impact trajectory, or building
characteristics of the barrier design, in order to evaluate the
barrier behavior under different impact conditions.
As a conclusion, computer simulation has demonstrated to be a
powerful tool that firstly represents with an acceptable rate of
accuracy Spanish regulation UNE 135900 for motorcyclist impact
tests. Secondly, it can be used to optimize the design of roadside
barriers improving its building parameters, to reduce riders
injuries on the head, neck and vertebrae, and with a considerable
investment saving.