UTM

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

CRUSHING BEHAVIOUR AND ENERGY

ABSORPTION OF W-BEAM GUARDRAIL

UGP 1

Presented by:

Mohd Syah Rullacmar

Bin Mohamed Shuib
(SX101172 MMJ03)
Supervised by:

Dr. Zaini Bin Ahmad

Presentation Outline

Research Background
Research Problem
Aims, Objectives & Scopes
Planning & Scheduling

Literature Review

Methodology
Finite Element Modeling of preliminary model
Experimental techniques
Preliminary Result
Validation of FE model
Parametric Study

Conclusion

Research Background
Malaysias Road Safety Performance;
Worlds second highest road fatality per 10,000 registered vehicles
Worlds highest percentage of road fatalities per 100,000 population
Based on IRTAD 2014 Road Safety Annual Report [1]

Road barriers are paramount in order to ascertain road user safety

To provide adequate safety for impacting vehicle occupants and
other road users
1. International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD). (2014).
Road Safety Annual Report 2014. Retrieved from
http://www.internationaltransportforum.org/pub/pdf/14IrtadReport.pdf

Research Background
TYPES OF ROAD SAFETY BARRIERS
Rigid Barriers
Do not deflect upon impact with limited
energy absorption
Redirect colliding vehicle stably without
rolling movement
Eg: Concrete Barrier

Flexible Barriers
Have high deflection and energy
absorption property by utilizing the
energy management principle
Lowest deceleration force on vehicles
Guides the colliding vehicle forward
Eg: Wire Rope Safety Fence

Research Background
TYPES OF ROAD SAFETY BARRIERS

Semi- Rigid Barriers

Strong Beam -Weak Post
Eliminates vehicle snagging
Strong Beam -Strong Post
Requires minimal defection
Eg: W-Beam Guardrail

They have low to moderate

deflection distance
The most appropriate type
of safety barrier along the
road, Utilized in most parts
of the world

Research Statement
Number of road accident
casualties and injuries in the
country are still high
Road barriers are not
achieving their targeted goal
due to possible design and/ or
installation flaw
Crash tests are notably costly
and time consuming

Aims and Objectives/Scopes

The primary objective of the study is to determine the energy
absorption and crushing behaviour of W-Beam guardrail under
impact loading.
Scopes of the study
1.

Developing preliminary FE models

2.

Conducting quasi-static and dynamic test*

3.

Developing detailed finite element results for examining the impact

characteristics

4.

Validating numerical models by comparing the crushing profiles and loaddeflection response

5.

Performing parametric studies

Planning and Scheduling

Gantt Chart for UGP 1: To aid project progress

Crash Barrier Overview

According to the Road Engineering Association of Malaysia
(2006)
A feature primarily designed to protect road users from
hazardous elements.
Imperative that road barriers are installed correctly as a
preventive measure to reduce accident severity.
According to Ren and Vesenjak (2005)
Crash barriers must withstand the impact of vehicles of a
certain weight from a certain angle while travelling at a
certain speed by absorbing the impact energy during the
collision.

W-Beam GuardrailBehaviour under Impact

The W-beam guardrail is classified as semi rigid. It is designed suitably to withstand

higher impact angle. To achieve its optimum function, the design of the guardrail
should behave as follows: [2].

a) The W-beam barrier must be strong enough to withstand the high axial tensile and
bending stresses that occur in the event of vehicle impact.
b) b) The W-beam first bends and then flattens out forming a wide tension band to
contain the impacting vehicle

2. REAM, Guidelines on Design and Selection of Longitudinal Traffic Safety Barrier. 2006.

Computer Simulation Study

Borovinsek, et al (2007)

Presented data of a computer

simulation on European
Standard EN1317 road safety
barrier behaviour under impact
crash for high containment level
The studies were ran on a
multiprocessor computer
platform in order to conduct a
simulation using explicit finite
element code LS-DYNA
Simulation data were compared
to a large scale experiment of the
same road safety design which
illustrated a good correlation
between the two

Computer Simulation Study

Shen, et al (2008)
Employed the ABAQUS/Explicit v6.5 software to simulate the dynamic
response of the safety barrier under impacts
Estimated the crashworthiness and optimized the design of the W- Beam
guardrail system in terms of relative vertical distance from the vehicle centroid
to the mounting height of the beam
These and other studies further proves that numerical crash simulation is viable in
designing a crashworthy safety barrier system

Finite Element Modelling

of preliminary model
Important stage in studying impact crash using the FE method
Ensure an accurate representation of the W-Beam Guardrail FE
model to the real model
This study, has simplified certain aspects to reduce modelling time
and simulation time due to time constraint
Results obtained should be well within the range of predicted data
1.

Components are modelled using shell elements and general contact

interaction is defined as distance between each part for the entire
model

2.

Verification of the W-Beam Guardrail FE model to determine the

capability of general contact and the stability of the element in LS-Prepost
for crashworthiness applications

Finite Element Modelling

of preliminary model

W-beam guardrail meets the AASHTO M180 design specification

It has W shaped profile with minimum length of 3180 mm
Designed to 3 mm thickness

Model W- Beam Profile

Parameter

Dimension (mm)

Height

86 (+1.0, -2.0)

Width

310 (+5.0, -2.0)

Length

300(+5.0, -2.0)

Development of W-Beam Guardrail FE Model

Pre-Processing - Model has been constructed in Autodesk Professional 2012
and save in compatible format (.iges).
FE analysis of the W-Beam guardrail model has been analyzed by using LSPrepost 4.2
Analysis Solver FE model is analyze by using LS-Dyna Manager solver to
get the important data such as resultant force, displacement, internal energy,
kinetic energy etc
Post-Processing - for sorting, printing and plotting in evaluating and presenting
the results using visualization tools

Development of W-Beam Guardrail FE Model

velocity =
10m/s

moving
mass
W-Beam
Guardrail

stationary
mass

Construction of the W-beam Guardrail Model

Experimental Technique Simulation

(Discretization of FE Model)
Material Input in LS-Prepost
Properties
Material type
Element type
Density
Modulus of elasticity
Poissons ratio
Yield stress
Failure plastic strain

W-Beam Material
Piecewise-linear-plasticity (Type 24)
Shell
7850 kg/m
200,000 MPa
0.3
450.0 MPa
0.22
Effective
True Stress
Plastic Strain

(MPa)

0.000

450.0

0.025

508.0

0.049

560.0

0.072

591.0

0.095

613.0

0.140
643.0
Source from: Atahan, A.O., Finite element simulation of a strong-post
W-beam guardrail system.
Simulation, 2002. 78(10): p. 587-599.
0.182

668.0

Experimental Technique Simulation

(Discretization of FE Model)
Material Input in LS-Prepost
Properties

Moving Mass

Material type

Rigid (Type 20)

Rigid (Type 20)

Element Type

Shell

Shell

*0.000267kg/m

7850kg/m

200,000 MPa

200,000 MPa

0.3

0.3

Density
Modulus of elasticity
Poisson Ratio

Stationary Mass

*Based on 200kg weight and material size 500mm x 500mm x 3mm

Based on the analysis, the W-beam was divided into two distinct sections:
Region primarily responded to the impact forces and stresses from the crash
Region that did not actively partake in resisting impact forces- represented
as boundary conditions

Experimental Technique Simulation

(Discretization of FE Model)
Two types of contact interaction is used to define each of the part
Automatic Node To Surface
Assigned to the stationary mass and W-Beam guardrail
To ensure there is no penetration between the parts during simulation
Automatic Single Surface
Moving mass contact

* For the preliminary test, a 5mm element size with a

total of 10,760 elements and 11,119 nodes has been
created automatically by the software

Experimental Technique Preliminary Result

The W-Beam is expected to deform without any penetration

Experimental Technique Preliminary Result

Force Displacement Curve from the simulation

Experimental Technique Preliminary Result

Internal Energy

Experimental Technique Preliminary Result

Beam
Design

Thickness, Width,
|(mm)
(mm)

Angle,

Output
(CFE),

W-Beam

310

CFE = Crush Force Efficiency

SEA = Specific Force Absorption
PMEAN = Average force
P MAX = Maximum force

10

11.86%

(SEA),
J/kg

P MEAN,

P MAX,

(KN)

(KN)

16.63

38.24

322.36

Experimental Technique Compression Test

Quasi-Static
Compression test by
using universal testing
machine (INSTRON
600DX)
to obtain the load (N)
-displacement(mm)
curve
Data will used to
validate the FE model

Validation of FE Model
FE model is validate by load-displacement curve and the
deformation of the model and from the compression test
To ensure that crashworthiness scenarios are performed as
predicted
To verify whether the constraints and the boundary conditions that
have been set are correct in order for the model to run successfully
without any impending errors.

Parametric Study
To determine the effect of varying geometrical and material parameters during a
crash and the energy absorption response.
Beam Design

W-Beam,
Thrie Beam

Thickness, |
(mm)

Width,
(mm)

Angle,

2.5

280

10

2.67

290

12

300

14

3.5

310

16

320

18

Crush Force Efficiency (CFE), = PMEAN/PMAX , (0 < < 1)

Specific Energy Absorption (SEA) = E/m , E= energy absorb , m=mass

Output

-Crush Force Efficiency

(CFE),
-Specific Energy
Absorption (SEA)
-P MEAN
-P MAX

Conclusions
Preliminary simulation show that the W-Beam Guardrail has the
capability to absorb impact energy under axial loading
In this study, an explicit three-dimensional nonlinear nite element
code, LS-DYNA, was used to demonstrate how computer simulations
can and should be used to supplement full-scale crash tests due to its
cost-effectiveness
Computer simulation technology is shown to be capable of evaluating
and improving the impact performance of road-side safety barriers

Thank You For

Your Kind
Attention