Abstract
The motorization growth in India is highest as compared to previous year. This also increases the chances of road accidents. The traffic accidents that occur in the highway are increasing every year, which is causing casualties and economic losses. Accident statistics conducted by Government of India MoRTH Transport research wing, the accidents are increased by 2.5% from 2014 to 2015. On the highway the safety facility available to restrain the vehicle are the road side safety barriers. These systems are either used as the median barrier or on the side of the road. It consists of rail element, block and posts all made of steel. In this paper the focus is on the design of rail element. The current design used is W Beam, apart from this two other shapes are benchmarked which are used in other countries. Based on study of these designs, two new concept designs are made. The main objective of this work is to increase the energy absorbed by the barrier by changing the design or rail element so that increased energy absorption will help reduce the deceleration felt by the occupant thus reducing the injuries. The crash barrier is designed according to IRC and the Guardrail is tested according to EN 1317 standard using simulation with Radioss. On impacting the barrier the vehicle will be subjected to high deceleration which is life threatening. These deceleration observed should be reduced to save the occupants, one way is to increase the energy absorbed by the guardrail. The results show more than 30% increase in energy absorbed in case of 900 kg vehicle, more than 9% increase in case of 1500 kg vehicle and more than 2% increase in case of 13000kg vehicle.