Concrete Bridge Barriers: State-of-the-Art and Design Implementation
Publication: Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 29, Issue 8
Abstract
The current design guidelines for concrete barriers have not been updated much since the 1990s despite (1) several experimental, analytical, and computational studies that addressed both the demand and capacity sides of the design problem and (2) substantial increases in the velocity and weight of certain types of trucks specified in the crash testing guidelines that led to significantly higher impact demands than in the previous times. This state-of-the-art paper critically reviews the findings of previous studies and critiques their proposed design models. It highlights the lack of consensus regarding the failure mechanisms that should be considered in the design of concrete barriers and contrasts the results of a variety of proposed models with current design guidelines. Based on the review, recommended models for barrier design are proposed to aid in future revisions of the design specifications. Future research directions are also identified and discussed.
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Data Availability Statement
All data shown in the paper are available from the corresponding author by request.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52108136), National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2023YFC3806800) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. This research was also supported, in part, by National Science Foundation (Grants CNS-0958379, CNS-0855217, and ACI-1126113) and the City University of New York High-Performance Computing Center at the College of Staten Island. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation and the National Science Foundation of China.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Bridge Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 8 • August 2024
Copyright
© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 18, 2023
Accepted: Jan 24, 2024
Published online: May 17, 2024
Published in print: Aug 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Oct 17, 2024
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