DYNAMICS OF HIGHWAY GAURDRAILS: LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS (II)

THIS REPORT IS THE SECOND IN A SERIES DEALING WITH SMALL-SCALE MODEL EXPERIMENTS ON THE EFFECT OF VEHICLE IMPACT AGAINST CABLE TYPE GUARDRAILS. IT DESCRIBES THE REVISED FORM OF THE LABORATORY APPARATUS AND DISCUSSES THE RESULTS OF THE TESTS IN TERMS OF FULL- SCALE VALUES. THE VARIABLES INCLUDE VEHICLE IMPACT SPEED AND DIRECTION, IMPACT LOCATION, INITIAL STATIC TENSION IN THE CABLE, POST SPACING AND COEFFICIENT OF SLIDING FRICTION BETWEEN WHEELS AND GROUND. AMONG THE RECORDED QUANTITIES ARE MAXIMUM DYNAMIC CABLE TENSION AND THE SPEED AND DIRECTION OF THE VEHICLE AFTER IMPACT. THIS SERIES OF TESTS DEALS WITH THE LIMITING CASE OF "RIGID" POSTS. /AUTHOR/