Vehicle Crash Test Against a Lighting Pole: Experimental Analysis and Numerical Simulation

The role of safety on the road is getting more and more important due to the overall increase of traffic. Active and passive safety deals with different concepts, the first to prevent an accident, the second to reduce the risks of occupant injury during an accident, but both lead to the same objective: safety. In this work, the role of a crashworthy lighting pole is discussed in order to assure a higher level of safety. Crash tests on an existing aluminium alloy lighting pole have been carried out, at the LAST Laboratory of the Aerospace Engineering Department of the Politecnico di Milano, to get sufficient data to create a numerical model of both the car and the lighting pole. Modifications to the pole have been investigated with the use of a multi-body program called VeDyAC, to verify the possibility of successfully fulfilling the European standard EN12767 “Passive safety of support structures for road equipment – Requirements and test methods”. First results appear encouraging but further analysis has to be carried out, particularly on the base of the pole, which is the major part involved in the contact with the vehicle during the crash event. Results of experimental tests and numerical simulations with different solutions are presented and discussed.