Technical Paper
Development and Validation of a Methodology for Characterization, Simulation and Testing of Concrete Road Restraint Systems
2013-10-07
2013-36-0371
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.
