IMPACT OF ELECTRIC CARS ON THE CRASH PERFORMANCE OF LONGITUDINAL BARRIERS

Abstract

The use of battery electric vehicles (EVs) is spreading around the world due to their advantages. The presence of large batteries makes electric cars heavier, and due to their position, the vehicle’s center of gravity is lowered compared to conventional internal combustion engine cars. The weight of an impacting vehicle is one of the critical parameters for the acceptable performance of longitudinal barriers. It is anticipated that EVs could pose failure risks for conventional safety hardware, yet there is still no revision regarding the use of EVs in existing full-scale crash test standards. In this study, the effect of electric cars on the crash performance of the H1 containment level longitudinal steel safety barrier was investigated through computer simulations. Three different vehicle models, each weighing 900 kg and currently used for TB11 finite element analyses, were modified according to the features of the selected reference EVs. Barrier crash performance was evaluated in terms of occupant safety and structural adequacy. Analysis results showed that with increasing vehicle weights in EV tests, injury severity indices become smaller, while the damage to the barrier gets larger. Further investigation of the crash performance of existing barriers with EVs is highly recommended.