Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Cable Median Barrier Failure Analysis And Remediation, Cody S. Stolle

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

On divided roadways, cross-median fatalities are disproportionately overrepresented in fatal and serious injury crashes. Many state DOTs sought to mitigate cross-median crash risk by installing cable median barriers. Despite increased crash rates, studies evaluating crash rates before and after cable median barriers were installed indicated excellent improvement in overall safety.

Although cable median barriers are intended to prevent serious cross-median crashes, cable barriers can also contribute to serious injury and fatality crashes which would not have otherwise occurred, including penetration and rollover crashes. In order to reduce the frequency of undesirable penetration and rollover crashes occurring with cable median barriers …

A Concise Model Of 3x7 Wire Rope Used In Cable Guardrail Systems, Cody S. Stolle

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Wire rope is a versatile, flexible, high-strength member that is used in many mechanical systems. However, due to the complexity of wire rope, analytical investigations have been relatively limited. Previous attempts to create simplified models of wire rope were not validated with physical testing and used a cumbersome beam-and-shell or beam-and-solid method for simulating the wire rope. An improved LS-DYNA model of 19-mm diameter 3x7 wire rope commonly used in roadside cable guardrail installations has been developed. A Belytschko-Schwer beam element was selected along with material *MAT_166. Since wire rope displays internal damping due to friction of strands and wires, …