Designing highway barriers better able to protect motorists, buildings and their occupants is the driving force behind a project headed by Srdan Simunovic of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Computer Science and Mathematics Division. His task is to fine-tune a Federal Highway Administration computer model of a single-unit truck (26,000 pounds) typical of an appliance delivery truck. The truck is seen as the "bullet" that Simunovic and colleague Gustavo Aramayo use in computer programs to crash into different types of barriers common across the country. Engineers design barriers to either stop or deflect a vehicle, and researchers have to take into account dozens of factors, including speed of the vehicle, the height of the barrier, the angle of impact, the type of suspension and the materials used in the truck. Results of actual staged truck crashes are then compared to the computer model crashes performed on ORNL's IBM Cheetah supercomputer. The research is funded through NTRC Inc. by the Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration.
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