EXPERIMENT AND ANALYSIS OF A SCALED-DOWN GUARDRAIL SYSTEM UNDER STATIC AND IMPACT LOADING

摘要

Corrugated steel W-beam guardrail system is the most popular energy absorbing system along roadside throughout the world. It helps to dissipate a vehicle's kinetic energy in impact events so as to reduce the damage to the car occupants and the car itself. Therefore, its performance and characteristics are of great importance for road safety. In this paper, our recent experimental study on a scaled-down W-beam guardrail system is reported. Downscaled W-beam samples were tested under quasi-static and impact three-point bending to reveal its energy absorption characteristics and the large deformation mechanism. The load-deflection curves, the global flexural profiles and the cross-sectional distortion were all recorded to gain the information on the deformation mechanism and energy dissipation of the W-beams. The effects of different supporting conditions and end constraints on the large deformation behavior of the beams were also examined. The experimental observations and measurements of the samples under impact loading were compared with its static counterparts. Furthermore, experiments were conducted on a scaled-down system consisting of a guardrail beam and two supporting posts to explore the interaction between the beam and the posts during an impact incident. This set of experiments was aimed at the examination of the energy absorbing capacities of the system and the partitioning of energy dissipation within the system when it is collided by a moving mass.