Security barrier performance assessment with numerical simulations using generic vehicle models

Vehicle security barriers preventing the entry of vehicles into pedestrian zones can effectively mitigate terrorist attacks by vehicle-ramming. The performance of barriers against vehicle impact can be certified through physical tests using real vehicles of given UNECE categories following ISO 22343 (2023). Due to a high cost, the number of performed crash-tests is very limited and cannot cover all impact scenarios of interest for the assessment of a barrier performance. The use of numerical simulations seems to be the most appropriate way to enhance the physical testing approach, since they are more accurate than simple analytical methods and more cost efficient than experiments. Over the last decades, the automotive industry and associated research communities have developed efficient numerical simulations tools to analyse the vehicle impact, related to the passenger’s and vulnerable road users’ safety. With some adjustments, these simulations methods and tools can be directly transposed to the analyses of vehicle impacts on security barriers. The numerical vehicle models used for passengers’ safety are far too detailed and too specific than needed for vehicle ramming applications. Namely, in our domain of interest, the objective of the simulation is to assess the performance of a barrier not a passenger safety. In addition, a barrier’s performance needs to be assessed for an entire category of vehicles, not for one specific vehicle. Therefore, for simulating vehicle impacts on security barriers several generic vehicle models have been developed to represent vehicles of a broad range of categories (from 3.5t to 30t trucks). These models are generic in the sense that they do not represent a specific vehicle brand, but are representative of one specific category among those defined by the standard ISO 22343. In addition, they are adjustable through a set of parameters, so that their properties could fit to various vehicle configurations. In particular, the mass of the vehicle, including its distribution, the main vehicle dimensions (length, width, etc.) and mechanical characteristics related to the crash behaviour can be varied. In this communication, several numerical simulations using the generic vehicle models are presented. Model validation with experimental results and sensitivity analyses of vehicle characteristics and impact configurations are discussed. It is shown that there are several crucial vehicle properties, which can significantly influence the crash behaviour and therefore the load on a security barrier subjected to an impact.

MARKOVIC Damijan;  SCATTINA Alessandro;  LARCHER Martin; 

2025-07-18

Chalmers University of Technology

JRC141780

https://doi.org/10.63959/silos15,    https://research.chalmers.se/en/publication/5cf1b571-2ade-415d-b0fc-5509825a4c65,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC141780,   

10.63959/silos15 (online),