A Study On Simulation Of Vehicle Impacting Concrete Guardrail

Safety guardrail is an important appurtenance to ensure traffic safety. In this research field our country started both late and at a low level. There are large differences between China and advanced countries in transportation, such as the United States. Our country started this kind of study on semi- rigid guardrail and has made systemic research since then. In 1994, the criterion of highway safety appurtenance design and construction was issued in our county, it makes a specific provision on design and use of several guardrails, but much of its content follows foreign experience. So we must enhance our knowledge on safety performance of rigid guardrail. It is necessary for us to study the process and response of vehicle impacting guardrail and to accumulate technical data for guardrail design.This paper puts the emphasis on concrete guardrail, and considers the deformation of both vehicle and guardrail. Using Kane equation to establish the mathematical model, then the vehicle dynamic equations are deduced and solved by the Runge-Kutta method. The whole process of vehicle impacting on concrete guardrail is simulated. The vehicle responses such as trajectory, leaving angle, acceleration, vehicle impact force acting on guardrail, etc. are given in this paper. The simulation data are in approximate agreement with those in references.