Maximum Impact Force of Truck Frontal Crashing into Antiram Bollard Systems

Abstract

Antiram bollard systems (ABSs) can effectively prevent vehicle bombs from approaching protected buildings and infrastructures and thus reduce the damage from blast and debris. This paper presents an assessment of existing models for predicting the maximum impact force of truck frontal crashing into ABS. Four available tests and 63 numerical experiments were assembled for the evaluation. Assessment results show that the design model in one design code is of the highest accuracy, while other existing models present worse predictions. However, the design model in the best-performing code is unreasonable since the energy absorbed by the deformation of ABS was not considered. Numerical investigation shows approximately 81% of the initial kinetic energy is transformed into the strain energies of truck, impacted bollard, and foundation during the crash. On this basis, a new maximum impact force model was proposed. The comparisons between the model predictions and the experimental results from tests and numerical simulations indicate that the proposed model is more accurate and rational than the existing models.