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A heavy-duty truck barrels down a straightaway at 50-miles-an-hour and comes to a crashing halt as it slams into a steel barrier.
Engineers at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute are testing the pipe-shaped barrier for the U.S. State Department. Researchers say the passive barrier is designed to keep a 15,000 pound truck from crashing into an overseas embassy complex, and the goal is to keep the bed of the truck from penetrating one meter past the protective side.
The barrier is made from a 12-inch diameter steel pipe that’s an inch thick, and the ends are embedded in a concrete base. The tests are conducted on the runway of an old military base that’s used by Texas A&M for its transportation testing. Researchers videotape the crash test from different angles for later analysis.
To learn more about the crash test, you can hear our interview with TTI research engineer Dr. Dean Alberson:
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