Employment of Computational mechanics Techniques in the Analysis of Infrastructure Safety (L’utilizzo della simulazione numerica nella sicurezza stradale)

The study of highly dynamic phenomena, like those that occur when two or more bodies hardly impact, is the application that have most benefit from the methods and tools of Finite Element Computational Mechanics (FECM). In the infrastructure safety two main applications have been found to be particularly well suited for this kind of analyses: • Pavement unevenness analysis, since the dynamic loads that stress the structures during the vehicle pass is not easy to evaluate with standard analytical procedures, but it must be measured in a full scale test, or with a “virtual test”, performed with the FECM techniques. • Roadside safety devices (and all the devices subjected to impact), that is probably the best application of FECM in the infrastructure engineering: these devices, alike the pavement unevenness, cannot be evaluated without a real test. This is the reason why all the major acceptance guidelines worldwide, request the execution and the fulfillment of a full scale crash test performed in well defined conditions

Lo studio dei fenomeni di dinamica veloci, come quelli nei quali due o piú corpi collidono, é una delle applicazioni che beneficiano maggiormente dai metodi e dagli strumenti della Meccanica Computazionale con modelli ad Elementi Finiti (Finite Element Computational Mechanics - FECM). Nello studio della sicurezza delle infrastrutture due applicazioni sono risultate particolarmente adatte a questo tipo di analisi: - lo studio delle irregolarità delle pavimentazioni, - lo studio dei dispositivi di sicurezza installati nei margini stradali.