TTI Research Supervisor:
Chiara Silvestri Dobrovolny
Texas A&M Transportation Institute
TAMU 3135
College Station, Texas 77843-3135
Pooled Fund Technical Representative:
Mary McRae
Statewide Standards Specifications
Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities
(907) 465-1222 [email protected]
ABSTRACT
The purpose of the tests reported herein was to assess the performance of the Midwest Guardrail Systems (MGS) with critical flare according to the safety performance evaluation guidelines included in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH), Second Edition (1). The crash tests were performed in accordance with MASH Test Level 3 (TL-3), which requires two crash tests:
MASH Test 3-10: An 1100C vehicle weighting 2,420 lb impacting the guardrail while traveling at 62 mi/h and 25 degrees.
MASH Test 3-11: An 2270P vehicle weighting 5,000 lb impacting the guardrail while traveling at 62 mi/h and 25 degrees.
This report provides details on the MGS guardrail with critical flare, the crash tests and results, and the performance assessment of the MGS guardrail with flare for MASH TL-3 guardrail evaluation criteria.
The MGS guardrail with critical flare at the considered flare conditions did not meet the performance criteria for MASH TL-3 guardrails.
After the full-scale crash tests were complete, an effort was initiated through finite element modeling and simulations to investigate the crashworthiness of the MGS at smaller flare rates and to consider prioritized MGS retrofit options, still for high-speed impact conditions.
