Comparison Analysis on the Structural Stability of Concrete Median Barriers Using Commercial Software

상용 프로그림을 이용한 콘크리트 중앙분리대 방호울타리들의 구조적 안정성에 대한 비교 분석

The concrete median barriers are the most popular safety appurtenances that can be installed on narrow medians and are effective in keeping uncontrolled vehicles from crossing into opposing lanes of traffic. It is necessary to install and maintain median barriers because it is very difficult to reserve enough room required for medians in KOREA. And concrete median barriers are accepted as the actual alternatives for median barriers, mostly because they require almost no maintenance even after serious collisions. Typical concrete median barriers are 810mm high and have 596mm high glare screens on top of them. But we have experienced a number of “climb” and “roll-over” accidents of heavy vehicles until now, and most of all, there have been some serious accidents caused by the part of broken glare screens. We have performed many computer simulations for the evaluation of the crashworthiness of concrete median barriers, and through the simulations we have tried to find a proper type of concrete median barrier.