Study of the Impact Performance of Expressway Concrete Barriers
摘要
Due to higher vehicle speed and errant driving, the accident rate in expressways has been considerably increased. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the impact performance of expressway concrete barriers ensuring vehicle redirection with minimum passenger risk and preventing vehicle rollover. A simulation-based parametric study was performed to investigate the effects of parameters that are involved in vehicle collision with concrete barriers and to identify barrier performance during collisions. Simulation of a vehicle collision with concrete barriers was performed using non-linear explicit dynamics code, ANSYS LS-DYNA. The parametric study was performed for several test conditions adhering to stated impact energy levels for barrier collision with passenger cars and heavy trucks referring to crash test guideline EN 1317. Displacement and effective plastic strains in concrete barriers were considered as indicators of barrier damage and performance. Acceleration Severity Index (ASI) was calculated to recognize the damage level to vehicle passengers. In this research, the performance of existing concrete barriers in Thailand expressways and the test vehicle behavior in various impact test conditions were identified.