Book Description

Researchers at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) designed and tested a Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH) Test Level 4 (TL-4) compliant metal guardrail system. The researchers first developed several preliminary design concepts of the guardrail system, one of which was selected by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) for further development through simulation and crash testing. The researchers then developed a full-scale finite element model of the selected system and performed impact simulations under MASH TL-4 impact conditions. Using the results of these impact simulations, the researchers made further improvements to the guardrail design and developed the final system design details for crash testing. TTI then constructed the guardrail installation and performed MASH Test 4-12 with a single unit truck, MASH Test 4-11 with a pickup truck, and MASH Test 4-10 with a small car to meet MASH TL-4 compliance criteria for longitudinal barriers. This report provides details of the guardrail design development, the crash tests and results, and the performance assessment of the guardrail system for MASH TL-4 longitudinal barrier evaluation criteria. The design developed under this research project provides a MASH TL-4 compliant guardrail system that allows TxDOT to provide enhanced roadside safety in corridors that experience above-average heavy vehicle traffic.