Study on a new mobile anti-terror barrier

The vehicle-ramming terror attacks in Berlin, Barcelona, London and Nice highlighted our vulnerability: all of us could be wounded or killed during a walk in a crowded place, it is sufficient a car, a van or a truck. The authors of this paper designed a planter full of water and mainly made of steel and cast iron. For this reason, this device serves as both mobile anti-terror barrier and street furniture. This barrier can stop a 3500 kg vehicle running at 64 km/h and the system itself in less than five meters as demonstrated by the experimental crash test. Starting from these considerations, a simplified mathematical model of the impact was developed and a finite element model was calibrated. The first one points out the main features needed by the obstacle; the second one is a good base for further analyses.