Methodology for Validation and Documentation of Vehicle Finite Element Crash ModelS for Roadside Hardware Applications

Research Objectives

The main objectives of this research task were to conduct an in-depth evaluation of the Single Unit Truck (SUT) finite element model with respect to its ability to accurately simulate its interaction with roadside safety hardware and to identify areas of possible improvements. The model's primary purpose is to be used as a bullet object for computational evaluation of road safety hardware.

A cooperative effort between the National Transportation Research Center (NTRC), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Battelle, and NCAC was initiated to update and enhance the kinematic and structural accuracy of NCAC's Ford F800 Single Unit Truck FE model. This document outlines the methodology used in evaluating, validating against experimental data and updating the FE model. A new Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)-based documentation has been developed to facilitate the model adoption and understanding of prospective users. The overall methodology used by the participants - from evaluation to validation to documentation - is outlined in this report and can be applied to other basic vehicle FE model currently available in public domain.

Test Correlations

The analysis of the model and comparison between simulations and tests lead to recommendations for the SUT model modifications that were implemented by the original developers of the model, National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC) and participants in this project, Battelle, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and University of Tennessee. The goal of the project was also to establish a methodology for validation and verification of the finite element models used in roadside hardware analysis so that it could be applied to other vehicle finite element models currently under development.

Interactive Web-Based User Manual

This website documents the model and allows the user to visualize all the main components of the model, including mechanical and material properties, detailed information regarding their connection to other components, and detailed contact information used in defining interaction between the various parts. The goal of the interactive 3D environment is to make the model more accessible to the end users and to facilitate transfer of the developed models and technologies to the end users.

Acknowledgements

This Heavy Vehicle Safety Research project was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation/Federal Highway Administration under cooperative agreement #DTFH61-03-X-00030 with NTRCI.

Use of the supercomputers at the ORNL Center for Computational Sciences (CCS) is gratefully acknowledged.

Our thanks to Roger Bligh of the Texas Transportation Institute for his generous contribution of the experimental test data that was essential to this study

Our thanks to NCAC staff – Dr. Leonard Meczkowski, Dr. Dhafer Marzougui, and Dr. Cing-Dao (Steve) Kan for their continuing support, help and advice on this vehicle model.