Real size experiments of a car crash against a building column

Abstract

Several real size car crash experiments have been carried out. In these experiments low velocity impact against a building column has been tested. The experiments have been carried out on a reinforced concrete column with a rectangular section. The test was developed in an external area; therefore, both the compression load and the boundary conditions in the column had to be applied with a special device. However, the use of a real car forced one to adopt some design conditions in this device. Furthermore, to avoid the need of a driver in the car, an inclined plane and a mechanical guiding system was used. In this paper the device, procedures and instrumentation used in these experiments are described. Five experiments were done with this system and their results are presented here. © 2010 WIT Press.