Design and analysis of energy absorbing crash buffers for fixed objects in high speed roadways
Date
2014
Authors
Uddin, M.S.
Quintel, J.
Zivkovic, G.
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Conference paper
Citation
8th Australasian Congress on Applied Mechanics (ACAM 8), 2014, pp.796-803
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8th Australasian Congress on Applied Mechanics (23 Nov 2014 - 26 Nov 2014 : Melbourne, Australia)
Abstract
Road fatalities as a result of collisions of vehicles with fixed objects on roadways are of paramount concerns across the world. This paper aims to design cost effective and high energy absorbing buffer systems for high speed roadways. The proposed buffer design is based on the assembly of a series of steel cylindrical hollow tubes (cells). The idea is that during collisions, the kinetic energy of the errant vehicles will be absorbed by the progressive deformation of the cells, allowing a comfortable ride-down deceleration of the vehicle’s occupants, and hence minimizing fatality and damage to the vehicle. As the cell was the fundamental unit of the buffer design, three cells with different geometry were studied to understand the underlying deformation of the cells. Nonlinear quasi-static tests using three dimensional (3D) finite element (FE) and experimental methods were performed to evaluate the deformation and the energy absorption capacity of the cells. Based on experimental results of single cells, potential buffer systems were designed for 80 km/h speed roadways. Results indicated that buffers with larger diameter cells are favourable to be used in high speed zone. They are found to reduce the overall size of buffers, hence minimizing cost associated with materials and fabrication. Depending on the nature and available space of the roadways, the designed buffers can potentially be adopted to reduce the vehicle crashes with the fixed objects.
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Copyright 2014 Engineers Australia