New Finite Element Model for NHTSA Impact Barrier

The US Federal Standard for Side Impact Protection (FMVSS 214) uses a deformable barrier and defines the dimensions and materials of the barrier, as well as the crush strength of the aluminium honeycomb parts in the main block and the bumper. This deformable barrier is also used for rear impact according to the updated FMVSS 301. This paper represents the methodology to create the advanced Finite Element model of Cellbond’s NHTSA barrier and validation through experimental test data. The explicit LS-DYNA® was used to analyze the model while number of static compressive tests performed at different angles to characterize aluminum honeycomb Material Cards. A strain-rate scale factor curve is defined to simulate the dynamic stiffening in the aluminium honeycomb during the analysis. Adhesive properties are also obtained using Climbing Drum, T-Peel, Tensile and Plate Shear test results. The preliminary component tests generated a good correlation with FE outputs and to validate the barrier model, similar impact tests were performed in LS-DYNA environment respecting to three experiments Flat-Wall, Rigid-Pole and Rear-Armature tests. In all assessments, the barriers were mounted on a moving trolley and were tested at certain speeds. The Final comparison on overall results represents a good correlation between test data and CAE results for all tests.