• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.407-417
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• 2001

To secure good visibility various steel flexible barriers were introduced and constructed in the area where a highway runs in parallel with a railroad. However, none of the flexible barriers was proven to satisfy the performance criteria for the impact condition of $14tonf-80km/h-15^{\circ}$ set forth by Korea design guide. Thus, in this study, the impact performance of the flexible barriers was investigated by using Barrier VII program, which was most widely used for the preliminary design of barriers. From the analytical results, it has been found that none of the barriers satisfied the stiffness requirement while the Type C barrier showed stiffer behavior than the others. Thus, the way to strengthen the installed Type C barrier was experimentally investigated. The method of partially filling concreter inside the pst was efficient to satisfy the performance criteria for the impact condition of $14tonf-80km/h-15^{\circ}$.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.39-50
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• 2007

Barrier VII program is normally used for the design of flexible barrier, but if modelled properly it can be used for the analysis of vehicle impact to small sign posts. In this paper sign post is shown to be modelled as flexible barrier by combining beam and column elements at each beam node. Simulations with the Barrier VII program have been made for 7 impact cases composed of sign posts of circular and H section with rigidly connected support and breakaway support system. The impact speed used for the simulation ranged from 30km/h to 110km/h. The study shows that in the vehicle impacts to a circular sign post with high speed, the large deflection and high inertia force causes the sign plate to hit the windshield leading to a hazard to the occupants. It is also shown that impact to H section post results in small deflection of the post and abrupt velocity change and high deceleration of the impact vehicle causing severe damage to both the vehicle and occupants. Simulation study also shows that breakaway support system eliminates the potential danger of the vehicle impact to the rigidly connected small sign posts by reducing deflection of the post, abrupt change in velocity and deceleration level.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.127-133
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• 2013

PURPOSES : The impact performance of flexible barrier system such as structural response, vehicular motion and occupant safety vary depending on the impact point. Thus, to properly evaluate the performance of a flexible barrier system, impact should be made to a point which will lead to the worst possible results. This point is called the Critical Impact Point (CIP). This paper presents the way to determine the CIP for a SB2 class flexible barrier system which is consisted of Thrie-Beam rail and circular hollow tube post of 2m span. METHODS: Barrier VII simulations were made for impact points; Case 1 at a post, Case 2 at 1/3 span downstream from a post, Case 3 at middle of the span, Case 4 at 2/3 span downstream from a post. For the structural performance (deflections), impact simulation of 8000kg-65km/h-15degree was used, and for vehicle motion and occupant safety, simulation of 1300kg-80km/h-20degree impact was made and analysed. RESULTS: Case 1 gave the largest dynamic deflection of 75.72cm and also gave the largest snag value of 44.3cm. Occupant safety and exit angle of the vehicle after the impact were not sensitive to the impact point and were all below the allowable limit. CONCLUSIONS : For the SB2 class flexible barrier system's CIP can be regarded as a post which is sufficiently away from the end of Length of Need in order to avoid the end-effect of the barrier system. It can be more economic in the long run because the normal concrete pavement material is likely to cost more due to higher probability of maintenance and repair and higher social cost due to traffic accident, etc.