Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Deformable Concrete Median Barrier

In South Korea, the number of vehicles is gradually increasing. The number of heavy vehicles in 2010 increased up to 19% in less than five years. Therefore, the chances of heavy vehicle-concrete median barrier (CMB) collision also became higher than in the past; therefore, a need to study a stricter design level for improving the current CMB (CMB-15) under harsher environments arose. Accordingly, in the present study, a new concrete median barrier was designed under a stricter impact severity, SB6(420 kJ), compared to the current design impact severity, SB5-B (270 kJ). In particular, shock absorbing devices to absorb impact energy were applied to the CMB. An empty space allows the dowel bars to deform and absorb collision energy. Therefore, deformable CMB was designed and tested. The key parameters selected in our study were dowel bar and wire-mesh. A series of numerical analyses were conducted to evaluate the proposed new deformable CMB designs with shock absorbers. Finally, the optimal design, CMB-17S, was proposed after several evaluations of the proposed designs and a full-scale field test. It was found that, although the developed model did not accurately predict the impact sequence due to certain differences between the actual truck and the truck model, the permanent deformation after collision could be well predicted. Based on the observations from a full-scale impact test, it was recommended that the top part of the CMB should be strengthened since major volume loss occurred due to local impact, which appeared to be due to punching shear failure.