Influence of tire blowout on the collision of a light pickup truck with a guardrail safety barrier

Abstract

This main purpose of this work is to investigate, through a finite-element simulation, the effect of tire blowout on the collision of a light pickup truck with a guardrail, at a speed of 100 km/h. The finite-element model was calibrated against a dynamic test carried out by the Texas Transportation Institute. Four cases of individual tire blowout were considered. Among these, the case of the left front tire was found to be the most critical one, resulting in a pitch angle of 24°, a roll angle of 12°, and a yaw angle of 30°. For this critical case, the results showed that the deflated tire trapped in the guardrail, which created more interaction between the vehicle and the guardrail beam. These challenging crash conditions were found to be more crucial for the stability of the pickup compared with the fully inflated tire scenario.