Bio-Inspired Reusable Crash Cushions with Superior Energy- Absorbing Capacity

Details

• Creators:
  Jin, Congrui ; Moussavi, Arman
• Corporate Creators:
  Mid-America Transportation Center for Transportation Safety and Equity (MATC-TSE) Region 7 University Transportation Center (UTC) ; University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Department of Transportation. University Transportation Centers (UTC) Program ; United States. Department of Transportation. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Biological materials
  • Crash cushions
  • Crashworthiness
  • Design
  • Energy absorption
  • Mechanical analysis
  • Optimization
  • Simulation
  • Structural analysis
  • Three dimensional printing
• Publication/ Report Number:
  25-1121-0005-051
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Edition:
  09/01/2020 – 08/31/2022
• Corporate Publisher:
  Mid-America Transportation Center for Transportation Safety and Equity (MATC-TSE) Region 7 University Transportation Center (UTC)
• Abstract:
  Roadside safety hardware, such as longitudinal barriers and crash cushions, is part of the highway infrastructure that is used to protect an errant vehicle from crashing into fixed roadside objects in a well-controlled manner. Despite constantly improved design and standardized full-scale impact testing of the roadside safety hardware, more than 3% of U.S. traffic fatalities are caused by the inefficiency of the roadside safety hardware. Innovative designs are urgently needed to improve the level of safety and decrease the severity of accidents. In nature, many plants and animals are optimized to adapt to various overload conditions and have demonstrated superior impact-resistant and energy-absorbing capabilities. Careful examination of these biological structures may inspire a new generation of roadside safety structural designs. This project comprehensively reviews the structure-property-performance relationship of the exemplary biological materials and demonstrate that the strategies used by the various biological role models can be understood, abstracted, modified, and transferred to bio-inspired roadside safety hardware.
• Format:
  PDF
• Funding:
  69A3551747107
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/77895/dot_77895_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.12 MB]
• Collection(s):
  University Transportation Centers
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:cb1ea7b2478145ed0a5f0bc9f031b06f6b95a90929a616040a5e68dd14db4e1d1661c63348a3b4348efdb0e33560933e3317c9fb40c842971c5e29402ace1dd8