Performance evaluation and placement analysis of w-beam guardrails behind curbs.

Details

• Creators:
  Fang, Howie ; Weggel, David C. ; Li, Ning ; Gutowski, Matthew ; Baker, Ryan ; Palta, Emre ; Kuvila, Daniil
• Corporate Creators:
  University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Highways
  • Median barriers
  • Guardrails
  • Performance tests
  • Impact tests
  • Curbs
  • Beams
  • Finite element method
  • Simulation
  • Highway safety
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FHWA/NC/2013-10
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  North Carolina. Dept. of Transportation
• Abstract:
  This report summarizes the research efforts of using finite element modeling and simulations to evaluate the performance ; of NCDOT W-beam guardrails behind curbs under MASH TL-2 impact conditions. A literature review is included on ; performance evaluation of W-beam guardrails as well as applications of finite element modeling and simulations in ; roadside safety research. ; The modeling and simulation work was conducted on three NCDOT W-beam guardrails (with placement heights of 27, ; 29, and 31 inches) placed at the curb face and at 12 feet from the curb face. The 29-inch guardrail was also evaluated at ; 6 feet from the curb face. The guardrails with 27-, 29-, and 31-inch placement heights were impacted by a 1996 Dodge ; Neon and a 2006 Ford F250 at 44 mph (70 km/hour) and at two impact angles (25 and 15). The guardrails ; performance was determined by evaluating the vehicular responses based on MASH exit box criterion, MASH evaluation ; criterion F, exit angles, yaw, pitch, and roll angles, transverse displacements, and transverse velocities. ; The simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness of the 29- and 31-inch guardrails placed at 12 feet from the curb ; face under MASH TL-2 impact conditions. Under small angle vehicular impacts (i.e., 15), the guardrails with 27-, 29-, ; and 31-inch placement heights were shown to be effective at all three placement locations in relation to the curb face. ; Finite element modeling and simulations were shown to be both effective and efficient and can be used to study crash ; scenarios that are difficult and/or extremely expensive to conduct with physical crash testing.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/28536/dot_28536_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 6.83 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:6e31208162f3347d89464627e7f66cad97c29c3d67b0b030eb8409228f47ff80