SIMULATION OF CAR FRONTAL IMPACT TESTS OF TWO TYPES OF ROADSIDE LIGHTING COLUMNS

The paper describes the correlation and discrepancies between the experimental results reported by Chris Davis on car to pole frontal impacts and those produced by the use of modern finite element modelling techniques in crash simulation. The highly nonlinear explicit solver LS-DYNA is used in conjunction with the preprocessor FEMB in a Windows NT PC based environment to model collisions between an American public domain vehicle of approximately 1400 kg in mass, and luminaire poles commonly found on Australian roads. Two types of luminaire poles are examined. The first of these is a so called Type A, Vehicle Impact Absorbent Column. On impact this pole is designed to flatten down from an octagonal section and ride under the car. The other pole being examined is a so called Type B, Standard Taperline Column which did not claim any special energy absorbing characteristics. The paper also highlights some of the specialist methods and techniques used to model the interaction between the FEM model of the car and of the luminaire poles during the first 100 ms of the collision. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see IRRD abstract no. E202589.