Methodology
for Validation and Documentation of Vehicle Finite Element Crash ModelS for
Roadside Hardware Applications
This document reports the
results of an evaluation of the Ford F800 single-unit truck (SUT) Heavy Vehicle
Finite Element (FE) Model, and the subsequent improvements and enhancements
made to that FE Model. The SUT model was developed by the Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) at the National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC) as a bullet
vehicle for modeling heavy vehicle interactions with roadside hardware.
This research was performed
as a collaborative effort by Battelle Memorial Institute (BMI), the Oak Ridge
National Laboratory (ORNL) and the University of Tennessee under auspices of
the project on Heavy Vehicles at the National Transportation Research Center,
Inc. (NTRC Inc.). The purpose of this task was to model and assess different
scenarios of truck vehicle run-off-road collisions with roadway infrastructure
elements, vehicle structural modes of failure, and subsequent vehicle
stability.
The model modifications,
improvements and enhancements that resulted from this study were ultimately
implemented by NCAC into the Ford F800 SUT finite element model. A list of the
actual model modifications, which improved the model's accuracy for roadside
hardware impact analyses, is included. These modifications did not decrease
the model's computational efficiency for crash simulations.
Impact of the SUT model with
a Single-Slope Bridge Rail and a New Jersey style barrier, were simulated. The
initial overall evaluations of the original SUT model that led to the
recommendations for model modifications were performed using these two
barriers, but the final evaluation of the enhanced model concentrated only on impact
with the Single-Slope Bridge Rail. The evaluation process, the enhancements
made to the model and the final evaluation of the enhanced model are discussed
in this report.
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.
