• Journal of the Korean Society of Hazard Mitigation
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.49-57
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• 2009

To minimze the degree of damage for the SMART highway's punctuality and safety after car-barrier collisions, the impact condition for longitudinal barriers of SMART highway was determined to be quite larger than the existing maximum impact condition. The impact condition consists of impact vehicles, impact velocities, and impact angles. To consider the occupant safety of passenger cars as much as possible, a small car with high risk during impact was selected as the impact vehicle for the evaluation of occupant risk. The impact velocity was determined to be 20% larger than the existing maximum impact velocity in order to include accident impact velocities as much as possible. The impact angle was determined to include most of expected accident impact angles. Computer simulations using various impact conditions were conducted for the existing domestic highest-performance medium and roadside barrier. How the suggested impact condition has an effect on the occupant safety was investigated. The existing domestic highest-performance medium and roadside barriers could not satisfy the suggested impact condition. New high-performance longitudinal barriers are required to minimize the degree of damage for the SMART highway's punctuality and safety after car-barrier collisions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.115-125
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• 2003

The concrete median barriers are the most popular safety appurtenance that can be installed on narrow medians and are effective in keeping uncontrolled vehicles from crossing into opposing lanes of traffic. It is necessary to install and maintain median barriers because it is very difficult to reserve enough room required for medians in KOREA. Also, concrete median barriers are accepted as the actual alternatives for median barriers, mostly because they require almost no maintenance even after serious collisions. Typical concrete median barriers are 810mm high and have 596mm high glare screens on top of them. However we have experienced a number of "climb" and "roll-over" accidents of heavy vehicles and most of all, there have been some serious accidents caused by the part of broken glare screens. So the improvement study of concrete median barriers started. Prior to this study, a new type of concrete median barrier was suggested which is 1,270mm high and has no glare screens on top of it. So it was required to compare the properties of various types of concrete median barriers including the new type to find the optimal type of concrete median barrier. In this study, we have evaluated the characteristics of four types of concrete median barriers (New Jersey type, F type, constant slope type, and wall type). We have performed many computer simulations for the evaluation of the crashworthiness of them, and through the simulations we have tried to find a proper type of concrete median barrier. Through the computer simulations, we evaluated the structural stability and safety of the four types of concrete median barriers. We confirmed the structural stability and safety of them But in regard to the probability of "roll-over" of heavy vehicles, the higher concrete median barriers showed better performances than the lower. As the result of this study a new type of concrete median barrier was recommended.