Development of validated Finite element model of a rigid truck suitable to simulate collisions against road safety barriers

The effectiveness of FEM (Finite Element Method) to improve the crashworthiness, both of the vehicle and of the road safety hardware, has been plainly demonstrated in literature. As well known, such a methodology can be successfully employed (i) as a support to design novel devices and (ii) as a tool to perform parametric studies to assess the influence of different factors. Of course this is possible only when available models are calibrated in a wide range of impact conditions. In this work, a well detailed finite element model of a rigid truck is presented. The model has been validated through an extensive comparison with two full scale impact tests, the first against a concrete wall and the second against a road safety steel barrier. The excellent agreement attained when simulating the abovementioned impacts, characterized by noticeably different nature, demonstrates that the modelling processes of the vehicle and devices were accurate and that, in particular, the FE model of the Heavy Good Vehicle is suitable for a wide range of impact conditions. As a conclusion, the validated model is reliable to predict the impact behaviour without needing expensive crash tests.