Performance Evaluation of Portable Concrete Barriers

The primary purpose of longitudinal safety barriers, such as Portable Concrete Barriers (PCBs), is to contain and/or redirect errant vehicles that depart the roadway, hence keeping them from entering opposing travel lanes or encountering terrain features and roadside objects that may cause severe impacts. In this study Finite Element (FE) analyses are performed to study the safety performance of different combinations of PCBs. Detailed finite element models of most commonly used PCB safety shapes, lengths and the type of connections are developed and validated against previously conducted full-scale crash tests. The full-scale crash tests and simulations are setup for an impact of the PCB with a 2000 kg pickup truck at an angle of 25 deg and an initial velocity of 100 km/hr. This setup is in accordance with the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 350 guidelines for Test Level 3 safety performance. Having validated these models, computer simulations are performed to assess the barrier performances for a full matrix of barrier shape, length and connection combinations. A design table is developed to help the highway safety engineer decide on the most effective combination.