MULTIBODY SIMULATION OF A CRASH TEST ATTENUATOR MADE OF RECYCLED MATERIALS

A multibody system (MBS) model of a scaled experimental attenuator is being developed, the aim being to design a new kind of truck-mounted attenuator (TMA) made of recycled materials. In this work, we implement the elasto-plastic behavior of the recycled material modules as a constitutive law of a MBS model which also includes the impacting vehicle, in order to simulate the collision. The simulation results aim at predicting the potential risk for the occupants, referring to the Acceleration Severity Index (ASI), and for the road workers by considering the truck displacement. The envisaged collisions consider a vehicle weighting from 1 ton (at 100 km/h) up to 13 tons (at 70 km/h)