The design and testing of a portable vehicle crash barrier

The most widely quoted and generally adopted vehicle barrier specification is the American Dept. of State specification SD-STD-02.01 published in April 1985 which in summary asks for the arrest of a 15000lb vehicle moving at 30, 40, or 50 mph within 3ft, 20ft or 50ft. The testing required to achieve this rating is clearly laid out in the standard documentation (SD-STD-02.01) and revolves around using a "pickup truck" of American manufacture. This specification has recently been reviewed and superseded by SD-STD-02.01, Revision A, published in March 2003. The essence of the recent revision is to lower the stopping distances available for each speed to 1 metre from the inner edge of the barrier. The engineering required to arrest the loads required in the DOS specification is very significant and consequently expensive, the endorsed barriers generally being bulky, complex and management/installation intensive. The simplest method of lowering traffic approach speeds is the introduction of mechanical speed limiters such as chicanes, speed humps and other mechanical traffic trainers. The cost of these items is normally inconsequential when compared with the cost of arresting a 15000lb (6820kg) truck moving between 30 and 50mph (48-81kmh). AVSelli embarked on a research, design and development program in February of 2003 to develop a range of vehicle barriers. The key design points that we identified and focussed on during our development were "return to service time" for the heavier barriers and "speed of deployment time" for the lightweight barriers. In the pursuit of these objectives we have designed a range of vehicle barriers for a variety of duty cycles and applications. All of these designs employ friction braking and distortion of designated members to absorb the energy of the vehicle impact rather than the more usual and well proved "immovable object style".