This report describes the experimental tests of 20 year old segmented concrete barriers in British Columbia. The crash tests were conducted at 60, 80 and 100 km/hr, at impact angles of 15, 20 and 25 degrees, with small and medium size sedans into two different heights of segmented concrete roadside barriers. The purpose of the tests was to observe the performance of the barriers and vehicles relative to the performance limits specified by NCHRP 230. The vehicles were all instrumented with accelerometers and the result samples at 3000 Hz on each of nine channels for a total of 12 seconds. This data was fastened by a low-pass sixth-order Buttersworth filter with a cut-off at 180 Hz as specified by NCHRP 230. In addition, high speed videos at 1000 frames per second were overhead and behind the barrier to obtain a visual record of the vehicles and barrier behaviour. The result is a thorough description of vehicle and barrier performance at speeds loading up to the NCHRP 230 test speeds. Procedures suggested in this paper offer a consistent method for estimating appropriate barrier strength for location and type of highway involved.
Abstract