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Illustration and photo for visual interest. This image is made of two shots. The first is a computer-generated model of the second shot, which is of a truck impacting a concrete barrier. The white truck, show head-on, impacts on the driver's side of the vehicle. Its body and tire on that side are bent. The passenger's side of the truck leaves the ground slightly.

The Center for Computational Mechanics utilizes models and simulation to evaluate the design of devices.

Center for Computational Mechanics

Description

The Center for Computational Mechanics at TTI is one of four university-based centers established by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Funding is provided jointly by FHWA, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), the Texas A&M University Supercomputer Center, and TTI. Due to the prohibitive costs associated with crash testing, engineers are relying more and more on sophisticated analytical models and simulation codes to evaluate design and analysis problems of roadside safety. Although the center's focus will initially be on roadside safety, the activities of the center will not be limited to this area. The center will also pursue other applications, such as dynamic analysis of soils and pavements.

Mission

The center was established to advance the field of roadside safety, reducing the number of fatalities and serious injuries caused by run-off-the-road crashes. Crashes involving vehicles that run off the road account for roughly one-third of the 42,000 annual highway-related deaths. The center focuses on the application of nonlinear, dynamic finite element analysis to roadside safety design.

Expertise

Researchers in the Center for Computational Mechanics have expertise in the design analysis, testing, and evaluation of the following highway safety appurtenances:

  • guardrails,
  • bridge rails,
  • median barriers,
  • guardrail/bridge rail transition,
  • guardrail end treatments,
  • crash cushions,
  • breakaway sign supports,
  • work zone barriers,
  • low-deflection portable concrete barrier systems,
  • crashworthy barricades,
  • sign support systems, and
  • the use of computer simulation in the design, analysis, and evaluation of highway safety appurtenances and roadside geometric features.

Research Initiatives

The Center for Computational Mechanics is part of the Safety and Structural Systems Division. Researchers at the center have developed safe practices for encasing guardrail in pavement mowing strips, designed a low-deflection portable concrete barrier system, and developed crashworthy barricades and sign support systems for use in highway work zones.

For More Information

Roger Bligh
Center for Computational Mechanics
Texas Transportation Institute
Texas A&M University System
3135 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-3135
ph. (979) 845-6375 · fax (979) 845-6107
rbligh@tamu.edu

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