• Journal of Korean Society of Steel Construction
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.381-393
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• 2001

The current traffic situation in Korea can be described as rapid change in traffic volume and diversity in vehicle size from compact cars to large trucks. W-beam barrier most widely used in Korea was found not to satisfy the stiffness requirement for the Koran impact condition of 14 ton-60Km/h-15deg. and it was too stiff for small vehicles impacting with more realistic speed to satisfy the safety of vehicle occupants. To develop a guardrail system satisfying the two contradicting goals, a thrie-beam guardrail system, which had the beam thickness of 3.2mm and rubber cushions, was conceived. Even though the height of the thrie-beam(450mm) is increased by 100mm as compared to that of W-beam (350mm), there was only 2% increase in the weight of the thrie-beam. The new thrie-beam barrier system could contain more wide range of vehicle bumper heights, and showed better performance in the viewpoint of stiffness and energy absorbing capability than the W-beam system. The impact performance was evaluated from a crash test. The developed thrie-beam guardrail system satisfied all applicable criteria for NCHRP 350 test designation 3-10.