TTI Student Technician Hillary-Anne Metcalfe measures a component using the FARO arm.

To further its effort under a grant from the U.S. State Department, the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) has acquired a computer-modeling scanning system that ensures the Institute’s stature as one of the premier crash-testing facilities in the world.

The three-dimensional scanning device, called a FARO® Edge, allows TTI to scan vehicle parts and components of roadside safety and perimeter security devices for use in computer modeling to predict how they might react in a crash. (For more information about the FARO scanning system, view the company’s website at http://www.faro.com/edge/us.)

“Combining this new tool with our impact analysis software, TTI will be able to offer added value to our sponsors,” says Research Scientist Akram Abu-Odeh of TTI’s Roadside Safety and Physical Security Division.

“Full-scale crash tests are very expensive,” says Abu-Odeh. Computer modeling can be used to evaluate the impact performance of a device and, if needed, to permit the device to be modified prior to performing expensive crash tests.” In addition, Abu-Odeh says that computer modeling reduces the overall development cost of a product by decreasing the number of crash tests needed to arrive at a successful design.

The laser-scanning device is being used to meticulously map each component of a recently manufactured truck.

The impact analysis software used by TTI has the potential to save sponsors thousands of dollars when conducting full-scale crash tests.

“Once we scan the entire truck with the FARO arm, we can begin doing computer-simulated crash tests on the various security devices being used at U.S. facilities overseas,” says TTI Associate Transportation Researcher Michael Brackin, who is co-leading the scanning project with Abu-Odeh.

It will take a full year to scan each component and develop the detailed finite element model of the truck.

“We are extremely pleased to have this sophisticated technology available for our program,” TTI Assistant Agency Director Dean Alberson says. “It greatly enhances our research capabilities and will undoubtedly open the door for
other work.”

SLIP SAFE Breakaway System Goes Big in Kansas

This SLIP SAFE™ sign performed as designed in a crash in Kansas.

Joe Frazzetta of Nucor Steel-Marion Inc. is a believer. He decided to approach state departments of transportation (DOTs) with a Texas Transportation Institute (TTI)-designed and crash-tested product that has, for the most part, “needed a jump start regarding promotion and marketing.”

It’s called a SLIP SAFE™ breakaway system, designed for locations where signs are frequently hit. When a vehicle impacts a sign post, Nucor’s slip base allows the post to release from the base, causing minimal damage to the vehicle and the sign, depending on vehicle speed. The base remains in place, and with a new retainer plate, the existing sign and post are easily replaced, saving DOTs maintenance costs.

“The Kansas Department of Transportation [KDOT] told me they had a problem location where warning signs were always being knocked down by traffic,” Frazzetta said. “Working with KDOT, we put up SLIP SAFE units with our channel posts as part of a trial effort.”

Sure enough, a sign was hit, and someone with KDOT went out to take a look. The employee took pictures and sent an email to his boss. Those pictures and the email found their way to Frazetta’s inbox: “The only damage was that the sign was bent a little. The system worked like it was designed to. Great product. The Nucor system has less parts and less damage when hit, very easy to repair.”

Tried and True — ET-2000 Guardrail Still Saving Lives

Familiar sight: the ET-2000 guardrail end treatment.

Most drivers throughout Texas and the country have seen the black-and-yellow-striped guardrail impact device known as the ET-2000 and not given it a second thought. Donny Ohana, undoubtedly, will never see them the same.

Recently, Ohana, his brother and two friends were traveling in a small car down a feeder road in Houston off I-610. As he sped up to enter the ramp, he lost control of his vehicle and impacted the guardrail head-on, eventually coming to a stop on a hill on the roadside.

“I looked around and saw that I was OK, and that my brothers and friends were OK,” says Ohana. “I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I was just sitting there scared.

“I’ll never forget this. One of the cops came up to me and said, ‘You know, you are very lucky because if the old guardrail was still there or a different system was in place, it would have gone right through your windshield.’”

The Texas Transportation Institute (TTI)-developed guardrail worked as designed, curling up upon impact and dissipating the forward motion of the car.

“That is one of the most notable inventions and safety devices that has ever been developed at TTI,” says retired TTI Research Engineer Hayes Ross, who was the principal investigator for the ET-2000. “You don’t have to go along far on any highway in the United States or other countries to recognize some of the hardware and safety features that were developed at TTI.”

This Issue

Safety Is No Laughing Matter

Volume 47, Number 3
September 2011
Issue Overview

On this page:

• Scanning Facility Opens at Riverside, Broadens Research Capabilities
• SLIP SAFE Breakaway System Goes Big in Kansas
• Tried and True — ET-2000 Guardrail Still Saving Lives
• For More Information – Scanning Facility

Scanning Facility

TTI Research Scientist Akram Abu-Odeh (right) and TTI Student Technician Michael Brock prepare a component for measurement.

“We are extremely pleased to have this sophisticated technology available for our program. It greatly enhances our research capabilities and will undoubtedly open the door for other work.”
Dean Alberson,
TTI assistant agency director

For more information:

Akram Abu-Odeh
(979) 862-3379
abu-odeh@tamu.edu
or
Michael Brackin
(979) 845-2019
m-brackin@ttimail.tamu.edu

SLIP SAFE Breakaway System

“The only damage was that the sign was bent a little. The system worked like it was designed to. Great product…”
email from KDOT

ET-2000 Guardrail

“I’ll never forget this. One of the cops came up to me and said, ‘You know, you are very lucky because if the old guardrail was still there or a different system was in place, it would have gone right through your windshield.’”
Donny Ohana

To see a video featuring Donny Ohana and other TTI videos, please visit our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/ttitamu.

]]> http://tti.tamu.edu/2011/09/01/tti-research-makes-the-roadside-safer/feed/ 0 http://tti.tamu.edu/2010/09/01/the-forgiving-roadside-tti-research-facilities-are-vital-to-protecting-your-loved-ones/ http://tti.tamu.edu/2010/09/01/the-forgiving-roadside-tti-research-facilities-are-vital-to-protecting-your-loved-ones/#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:56:43 +0000 Chris Sasser http://tti.tamu.edu/?p=1281

Cable barriers installed on a stretch of IH 20 in Texas. Cable barriers have proven very cost effective in reducing head-on collisions across traffic lanes while slowing down vehicles with minimal impact on their occupants.

It’s five times safer to travel on our nation’s roadways today than it was five decades ago. For every 100 million miles Americans traveled in 1960, five people died. Today, the rate has dropped to just over one death per 100 million miles.

“As a nation 50 years ago, we decided that killing tens of thousands of people a year was unacceptable,” says Roger Bligh, manager of Texas Transportation Institute’s (TTI) Roadside Safety Program. “That’s why the concept of the `forgiving roadside’ was developed.”

In the 1960s, TTI led the safety movement on the new Interstate Highway System by conducting crash tests on signs, guardrails and crash cushions at its Proving Ground Research Facility, the Institute’s crown jewel for improving roadside safety.

TTI‘s technological innovations can now be seen on virtually every mile of roadway in Texas. Since TTI researchers created the earliest versions of the slip-base breakaway signs in the 1960s, more than 2,000 crash tests have been conducted at the Proving Ground, which recently gained accreditation by the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation for “technical competence in the field of mechanical testing.” Today, the facility also includes the Center for Transportation Computational Mechanics, where analysts run computer simulations to evaluate potential roadside safety solutions before performing the actual crash.

Perhaps TTI‘s most recognizable contribution to the forgiving roadside is the ET2000® guardrail end treatment. Developed in 1991, over half a million units have been installed throughout the United States and around the world. The ET2000® absorbs energy from a crash by deflecting the guardrail away from the impacting vehicle.

Recently, TTI helped develop and crash-test more forgiving median barriers made of cables rather than concrete. Concrete barriers continue to serve an important role in separating traffic on urban highways with narrow medians, but cable barriers have proven very cost effective in reducing head-on collisions across traffic lanes while slowing down vehicles with minimal impact on their occupants. The result has been a dramatic decrease in cross-median collision fatalities where cable median barriers have been implemented in the United States.

“Passenger vehicles can hit the cable, and most of the time they just drive off,” explains Marla Jasek, director of transportation operations for the Texas Department of Transportation Yoakum District.

But the forgiving roadside doesn’t maintain itself. Crews work to improve and repair roadways while drivers speed by, creating danger for both workers and drivers. An estimated 1,000 people are killed and 45,000 are injured in United States roadway work zones each year.

Portable concrete barriers are an integral part of the work-zone safety equation, shielding motorists and protecting workers. TTI continues to develop new barrier alternatives that offer designers safe and effective solutions for restricted work-zone sites. The new X-bolt connection reduces the deflection of free-standing barriers to less than 2 feet, and a drop-pin anchorage system permits portable concrete barriers to be installed along the edge of a bridge deck.

TTI research in work-zone safety includes its award-winning National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse.

TTI is also promoting work-zone safety through its award-winning National Work Zone Safety Information Clearinghouse (http://www.workzonesafety.org), the world’s largest Internet resource on all things related to work-zone safety. The clearinghouse is a project of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association and is operated in cooperation with the U.S. Federal Highway Administration and TTI. Since the site went online in 1998, it has assisted half a million users from every state and 27 countries with a variety of topics related to safety issues in work zones.

“We have all come together to make a real difference in making work zones safer,” says Jerry Ullman, manager of TTI‘s Work Zone and Dynamic Message Signs Program.

Commentary on Safety

by Mary McDonough
Roadway Departure Program Manager
Federal Highway Administration

“Roadway departure” refers to vehicles crossing a center or edge line or otherwise leaving a roadway. Crashes from roadway departure account for over half of U.S. fatalities. Causes of leaving the roadway include use of alcohol and cell phones, speeding and distracted driving. Some die from these crashes. Many more suffer incapacitating, lifelong injuries. They and those who know them are profoundly changed by these events.

What most people don’t realize is that the deadliest place to drive isn’t a busy freeway or a high-speed interstate. It’s a two-lane rural road. Horizontal curves, pavement drop-offs, narrow lanes, and trees and poles next to the roadway — all pose serious dangers on these roads.

Roadside safety countermeasures have dramatically improved in recent decades. Guardrail end treatments, breakaway signs, cable median barriers and other technological innovations keep millions safe when they depart the roadway. And more safety measures to reduce crashes and their severity are being developed.

The Federal Highway Administration’s policy and guidance includes performance testing for roadside hardware devices before they’re installed. Formal acceptance of crashworthy devices is our responsibility, and external partners with the highest standards of quality, such as the researchers at the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) Proving Ground, greatly assist us in that mission. TTI has helped raise the bar of excellence for other researchers. The Institute’s consistently reliable, proactive approach to device testing has helped save thousands of lives, not only in Texas but across the nation.

Our greatest hope is that you never use the safety features installed on roadways. No matter how well we do our jobs, the best way to avoid injury is for you, the individual, to be a consciously competent driver (and passenger). So stay safe, stay alert, and be cautious, especially on two-lane roads. Ultimately, safety is the responsibility of each and every one of us.

This Issue

Solving the Transportation Puzzle

Volume 46, Number 3
September 2010
Issue Overview