Citation

Giavotto V. Highw. Res. Rec. 1973; 460: 49-60.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1973, National Research Council (U.S.A.), Highway Research Board)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Computer program has been developed that simulates impacts of various vehicles with guardrail barriers. This program is a digital simulation system, making use of several mathematical models. The vehicle simulation is composed of 3 major segments: The vehicle as a rigid body, the steering gear, and the deformation of the body due to the impact. The barrier is essentially a structured beam on many flexible supports; the beam is divided into a certain number of elements connected to each other at the nodes. The vehicle and the barrier work in the following combinations: Dynamics of the vehicle alone before impact when the barrier is motionless and undeformed; dynamics of the vehicle and the barrier exerting forces on each other after impact; dynamics of the vehicle and the barrier not exerting forces on each other when they have no contact and the barrier oscillates because of inertia; and dynamics of the vehicle alone when there is no contact with the barrier, which is motionless and delormed. A certain number of full-scale tests have been computed, and a fair agreement with experimental results has been obtained. The use of such a program will substantially reduce the number of full-scale tests. /author/

Language: en

Keywords

MATHEMATICAL MODELS; ROADS AND STREETS; HIGHWAY SYSTEMS - Accident Prevention; MATERIALS TESTING - Impact