Some roadside safety barriers are made of a mixed structure of steel and wood. This kind of structure is currently in fashion in rural locations where safety equipment needs to fit the surrounding landscape (countryside, mountains, etc.). According to European legislation, any vehicle-restraint system has to pass two crash tests in compliance with the EN 1317. In the present study, we aim to develop a dynamic model of the multi-material structure in order to understand and optimise such safety barriers, i.e. to define the best possible association by combining the mechanical properties of both materials (i.e. steel and wood). In our paper, we present three-point bending experimental tests performed at different energy levels. These laboratory tests served as a basis for the evaluation of a material constitutive law in a numerical parametric study. Road equipment; crash tests; finite element model; wood-steel structure; LS-DYNA
