Testing of State Roadside Safety Systems Volume X: Appendix I - Crash Testing and Evaluation of a Mini-MELT for a W-Beam, Weak-Post (G2) Guardrail System (FHWA-RD-98-045)

The purpose of this study is to crash test and evaluate new or modified roadside safety hardware and, where necessary, redesign the devices to improve their impact performance. The three major areas addressed in this study are the impact performance of bridge railings, transitions from guardrails to bridge railings, and end treatments for guardrails and median barriers.|This report presents the results of four crash tests conducted on a Mini-MELT for use with the W-beam, weak-post (G2) guardrail system. The first test involved a 2000-kg (4409-1b) pickup truck impacting the terminal at the beginning of length of need at a nominal impact speed and angle of 100 km/h (62.2 mi/h) and 25 degrees. The vehicle was successfully contained and redirected, but the vehicle rolled over on its side as it lost contact with the guardrail. The terminal was redesigned and evaluated in a second crash test, which involved a 2043-kg (4500-1b) passenger car impacting the guardrail 4.6 m (15 ft) upstream of the last wooden CRT post (post 5) in the reverse direction at a nominal impact speed and angle of 96.5 km/h (60 mi/h) and 25 degrees. The W-beam rail element was ruptured, allowing the vehicle to penetrate behind the guardrail. The terminal was again redesigned and evaluated with the third and fourth crash tests. The third test was a repeat of the second test on the modified terminal. The fourth crash test involved a 2043-kg (4500-1b) passenger car impacting the modified terminal at the beginning of length of need at a nominal impact speed and angle of 96.5 km/h (60 mi/h) and 25 degrees. The vehicles were successfully contained and redirected in both tests and the modified Mini-MELT was judged to have performed satisfactorily.|This volume is the tenth in a series of 14 volumes for the final report. The other volumes in the series are: Volume I - Technical Report; Volume Il, Appendix A - Crash Testing and Evaluation of a Michigan Thrie-Beam Transition Design; Volume III, Appendix B - Crash Testing and Evaluation of a Guardrail System for Low-Fill Culvert; Volume IV, Appendix C - Crash Testing and Evaluation of a Pennsylvania Transition Design; Volume V, Appendix D - Crash Testing and Evaluation of a Washington, DC, PL-1 Bridge Rail; Volume VI, Appendix E - Crash Testing and Evaluation of a Modified Breakaway Cable Terminal (BCT) Design; Volume VII, Appendix F - Crash Testing and Evaluation of the Minnesota Swing-Away Mailbox Support; Volume VIII, Appendix G - Crash Testing and Evaluation of the Single Slope Bridge Rail; Volume IX, Appendix H - Crash Testing and Evaluation of the NETC PL-2 Bridge Rail Design; Volume XI, Appendix J - Crash Testing and Evaluation of Existing Guardrail Systems; Volume XII, Appendix K - Crash Testing and Evaluation of the MELT; Volume XIII, Appendix L - Crash Testing and Evaluation of a Modified MELT; and Volume XIV, Appendix M - Laboratory and Pendulum Testing of Modified Breakaway Wooden Posts.