Abstract
Errant vehicles occur as a result of the driver losing control of the vehicle. This may be due to sudden illness, dozing off or skidding while attempting a manoeuvre. In containing such an errant vehicle on a highway, the priority is to avoid collision with other vehicles. A sloped highway median provides a run-off area for such vehicles where the vehicle can be slowed down and stopped without the danger of being re-directed into the path of other vehicles as may occur with edge barriers. Here, the effect of a containment barrier at the bottom of the sloped median is studied with a view to prevent the vehicle from being redirected outside the median after colliding with the barrier. The focus of this work is on the change of kinematic states due to the collision, so a momentum-based vehicle collision analysis is developed, with the collision energy loss related to the vehicle stiffness being considered by coefficient of restitution. The average maximum lateral displacements post-collision are read from the diagram of vehicle x-y trajectories. In this way, the most suitable median slope 1:6 is selected.
Highlights
A sloped highway median provides a run-off area for errant vehicles where they can be slowed down and stopped without the danger of being re-directed into the path of other vehicles as may occur with edge barriers
The intermediate result refers to the kinematic variables of the pre-collision simulation and computation of collision model, some of which are input to the stage of the method so that the final result of the whole simulation could be calculated stage by stage
This study investigates the use of a sloped road median with a containment barrier to prevent an errant vehicle from being redirected into the path of other vehicles
Summary
A sloped highway median provides a run-off area for errant vehicles where they can be slowed down and stopped without the danger of being re-directed into the path of other vehicles as may occur with edge barriers. Based on VDA, further research used both Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software and Multi-body Dynamics software to simulate a vehicle driving into the median, from which the guideline of optimal median barrier placement was drafted [5]. Reliability of applying CarSimTM in such research was validated by Uzunsoy et al [7] by comparing the result of simulation with that of physical off-road tests
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.