Metamodel-based optimization of a high-tension cable barrier in crash tests with a large SUV

Road safety barriers play an important role in improving road safety. Cable barriers are one of the types of road barriers. Cable barriers have favorable collision-related properties, especially in terms of the safety of the vehicle occupants. Despite the continuous development of road barrier systems, the current European standard EN1317, which is used to evaluate the performance of road barriers, does not take into account all possible crash scenarios and all possible types of impacting vehicles. Sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are one of the types of vehicles that the EN1317 standard does not consider. SUVs are widely used on European roads. The work aims to optimize a high-tension 3-cable barrier system in crash tests with a large SUV. The research utilized the methods related to the design of the experiment, numerical simulations of crash tests, metamodeling, and multi-objective optimization (MOO) algorithms – WSF and NSGA-II. In the optimization, two aspects of the barrier were considered, economical and structural. The primary result of the study was the determination of four optimized designs for the cable barrier. These designs represent different trade-offs between the objective functions, offering various solutions depending on the specific engineering needs. The proposed barrier designs are characterized, among others, by a reduction in barrier mass, a reduction in the lateral deflections of the barrier, and a reduction in the number of posts that would need to be replaced after an SUV collision. The methodology used and the results achieved may be useful in the process of designing, testing, and optimizing other road safety barriers.