The simulation of the vehicle impact against deformable barriers has been commonly used for the design of vehicle bodies for a number of years. However, the use of similar procedures to study side impacts against road barriers is innovative and presents new challenges. The main technological challenge of simulating vehicle impacts against road barriers is based on an accurate characterization of barrier elements and materials such as the locking of the barrier with the ground, the deformation of the materials at high impact speeds, fracture modelling, correct definition of parameters such as friction between the elements that impact with the barrier, or characterization of elements embedded in the concrete such as the fibres. An essential part of the work is the realization of both characterization tests as well as real-scale tests, in order to validate the results obtained in the simulations.
This paper describes IDIADA's adaptation of the software commonly used in crash calculations to impacts against concrete barriers to be able to design and develop an innovative barrier design much faster and with a much lower cost than using traditional design methods. A new kind of test based on a particular kind of impact tool designed by IDIADA was carried out in order to correlate the material model of the barrier. To simulate the barrier in all kinds of crash severity conditions, three vehicles (car, truck and coach) were characterized.
The testing methodology developed, which substantially reduces the cost of developing a concrete barrier, is also described. This methodology was used to validate the simulations of a vehicle impacting a concrete road restraint system. The results showed a good correlation between the simulations and the experimental results.