Analysis of Field Expedient Non-Lethal Vehicle Arresting Barrier (FENVAB) against Large Vehicular Threats

Terrorist organizations have advocated conducting vehicle ramming attacks against crowds, buildings, and other vehicles in recent years. These attacks are becoming more widespread across the world. One common method for preventing these attacks is the deployment of vehicle barriers. The field expedient non-lethal vehicle arresting barrier (FENVAB) is an active vehicle barrier designed and patented by the U.S. Army Engineer Research Development Center (ERDC) to prevent unauthorized vehicle entry in urban and austere environments. The FENVAB does not include anchors and was designed to absorb the kinetic energy of the aggressor vehicle and convert it into frictional energy by forcing the vehicle to slide once it impacts the barrier. Additionally, this barrier design includes only basic steel materials and requires limited engineering support, equipment, or specialized tools. Multiple experiments have been conducted by ERDC to analyze the performance of the FENVAB against small vehicles. To prevent penetration of large vehicular threats, multiple FENVAB units can be linked to form an array. ERDC recently demonstrated the ability of the FENVAB array to limit penetration of a Class 6 Freightliner box truck. A computational model was also established using LS-DYNA to simulate the impact of a large aggressor vehicle into the FENVAB array. This research will provide government and private agencies with critical information regarding mitigation of large aggressor vehicles using innovative and expedient vehicle barriers.