Development of Shallow Footing Anti-Ram Bollard System Through Modeling and Testing

In past terrorist attacks, vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED) have been the primary manner of attacking buildings and infrastructures. Preventing unauthorized vehicles from approaching a protected area with anti-ram systems would maintain an established standoff distance against moving and stationary vehicles and consequently reduce blast and debris threats. This strategy has been considered the first line of defence against terrorists. Several types of anti-ram devices have been developed in accordance with U. S. Department of State K-rating criteria, for example, wedge barriers, rising beams, sliding/swing gates, and drop arms. However, these devices typically need a deep foundation for installation and can't be implemented into many locations where a depth of excavation is limited in order to protect utility lines of buildings and infrastructures. This paper presents a recent development of a series of shallow footing anti-ram bollard systems (SFABS) that can satisfy K-12 rating with only five-inch thick footing. A high-fidelity physics based finite element technique with a vehicle crash model is used for predicting anti-ram capacity and determining design parameters of the SFABS. Full-scale vehicle crash tests of the developed SFABS systems have been carried out to validate the design and analysis.

Characteristics of New-type Energy Absorber for Vehicle Collision

A new type energy absorber was introduced,which is composed of thousands of thin ring plates with different diameters.Because it can switch the impact to thousands of shearing actions among thin ring plates inside the absorber,the impact energy is decentralized and dissipated gradually,the impact acting time is extended and the peak of acceleration is reduced obviously.Numerical simulations by finite element method (FEM) coupled with smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method were preformed to predict the energy absorption characteristics.Energy absorption ability with different impact velocities was studied and the effects of thickness and material of ring plates were discussed.The sled crash test was carried out to validate the result of simulations.The new type absorber is effective for collision that impact velocity is lower than 40 km/h.

Development of test scenarios and bicyclist surrogate for the evaluation of bicyclist automatic emergency braking systems

Purpose–To support the standardized evaluation of bicyclist automatic emergency braking(AEB)systems,test scenarios,test procedures and test system hardware and software tools have been investigated and developed by the Transportation Active Safety Institute(TASI)at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.This paper aims to focus on the development of test scenarios and bicyclist surrogate for evaluating vehicle–bicyclist AEB systems.Design/methodology/approach–The harmonized general estimates system(GES)/FARS 2010-2011 crash data and TASI 110-car naturalistic driving data(NDD)are used to determine the crash geometries and environmental factors of crash scenarios including lighting conditions,vehicle speeds,bicyclist speeds,etc.A surrogate bicyclist including a bicycle rider and a bicycle surrogate is designed to match the visual and radar characteristics of bicyclists in the USA.A bicycle target is designed with both leg pedaling and wheel rotation to produce proper micro-Doppler features and generate realistic motion for camera-based AEB systems.Findings–Based on the analysis of the harmonized GES/FARS crash data,five crash scenarios are recommended for performance testing of bicyclist AEB systems.Combined with TASI 110-car naturalistic driving data,the crash environmental factors including lighting conditions,obscuring objects,vehicle speed and bicyclist speed are determined.The surrogate bicyclist was designed to represent the visual and radar characteristics of the real bicyclists in the USA.The height of the bicycle rider mannequin is 173 cm,representing the weighted height of 50th percentile US male and female adults.The size and shape of the surrogate bicycle were determined as 26-inch wheel and mountain/road bicycle frame,respectively.Both leg pedaling motion and wheel rotation are suggested to produce proper micro-Doppler features and support the camera-based AEB systems.Originality/value–The results have demonstrated that the developed scenarios,test procedures and bicyclist surrogate will provide effective objective methods and necessary hardware and software tools for the evaluation and validation of bicyclist AEB systems.This is crucial for the development of advanced driver assistance systems.