Gravel arrester beds as a safety measure at the motorway exit ramps: experimental and numerical study

Abstract

ABSTRACT At motorway junctions, crash cushions are usually installed to stop impacting vehicles safely. Gravel-filled arrester beds can be used as replacements for crash cushions. They offer improved safety by effectively using an already available large area, and lower-severity impact parameters for passengers while safely stopping the vehicle. The work presented in this paper was conducted to investigate the behaviour of passenger cars on gravel-filled arrester beds. For that purpose, a gravel-filled arrester bed was built, and a series of experiments was performed with passenger cars entering the arrester bed at an initial velocity of up to 75 km/h. Numerical analyses were also performed to validate the model as well as to examine the response of larger vehicles under a variety of conditions. The results have shown that gravel arrester beds can be used to stop heavier errant vehicles safely near road junctions.