Speaker
Description
Guardrails are highly recommended to be constructed in the median and side corner of a highway road to secure vehicle which accidentally loss it track, supports the safety of the vehicle driver and passenger from catastrophic accidents. The design and constructions of different guardrails are done to confirm standard to retain their performance that related to energy absorption capacity. Besides, it can also been seen in road for damaged guardrail that compromise their performance unless proper maintenance or repair is done. This study was conducted to investigate the structural integrity of a W-beam guardrail which is left without maintenance after damage. An impact test which leads to non-linear material deformation behavior was simulated using commercially available software, ABAQUS. The geometrical models of the guardrail were modeled by adopting AASHTO design standard, and a representative Jeep truck used as an impacting body. The non-conforming W-beam guardrail was modeled considering a loss connection of supporting leg with the W-beam. The vehicle speed was 42.26km/hr as oriented at 90o to the W-beam guardrail. Results of the study showed that the structural integrity of the defected guardrail is affected as the internal and plastic energy was decreased from the W-beam guardrail without damage. More, the damaged W-beam was displaced more, by 14.15%, to the restricted area as compared to the W-beam guardrail without damage.
| Conference Topic Areas | Track3: Computational Mechanics and Structural Integrity |
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