Development of a FEM Model for the Digital Twin Application and the Monitoring of Cor-Ten Road Barriers in the Autonomous Province of Bozen/Bolzano

Abstract

AbstractRoad infrastructures constitute a typical example of outdoor installations strongly exposed to atmospheric agents and potential impacts involving high quantities of energy. Consequently, investigations assessing the safety of road equipment, specifically road barriers, are of high importance. Road barriers in the Autonomous Province of Bozen/Bolzano are commonly made of Cor-Ten, a worldwide known weathering steel with a remarkable self-passivation property. The scope of this research is to develop a complete Digital Model of Cor-Ten road barriers, type PAB H2 CE, widely adopted in the territory of South Tyrol, through a FEM simulation. The aim of such Digital Model is the characterization of the mechanical behavior of this type of road barriers, for the further creation of the related Digital Twin, in order to obtain a fully-furnished digital model of the specific typology of road barriers in exam and enabling a real-time monitoring with the subsequent installation of sensors on existing road barriers. An open source code (Code_Aster) has been exploited to simulate the collision of a generic vehicle bumper and an existing road safety barrier made with Cor-Ten; the FEM simulation focused on deformations, acting forces, and absorbed energy. Results show that such typology of road barriers may be well able to absorb the energy involved in a typical road accident and that the developed Digital Model can be evolved into a complete digital version of real-world road barriers, obtaining a Digital Twin that also describes the barrier mechanical behavior under accident conditions. KeywordsDigital modelFEM simulationDigital TwinRoad barriersCor-TenCode_AsterEnergy absorptionDeformations