Ipe: Evaluation of Orthotropic Elastic Properties and Its Application in Roadside Barriers

Roadside barriers are the primary structural safety devices on surface roads. They can be made from any material as long as they can absorb the energy involved in an impact scenario. One material that has that potential is Ipe, which is a hardwood material that has relatively high strength compared with common structural woods. Despite its high strength, the nine independent material properties for Ipe have not yet been studied in the literature. In this paper, those material properties are determined with various tests. With the material properties, dynamic finite element analyses were done with seven different roadside barrier configurations and were then compared with the performance of the commonly used steel W-beam barrier. Ipe showed great potential with certain configurations, but with a much higher cost. Realistic implementation of Ipe in roadside barriers would be more beneficial for roads with lower speed limits, thus lowering that cost.

• Record URL:
  https://www.ugpti.org/resources/reports/details.php?id=894
• 
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/34783
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  Colorado State University, Fort Collins

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  Fort Collins, CO  United States  80525

  Mountain-Plains Consortium

  North Dakota State University
  Fargo, ND  United States  58108

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Lankford, Robert
• Publication Date: 2017-12

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 65p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Barriers (Roads); Costs; Design; Elasticity (Mechanics); Evaluation and assessment; Finite element method; Steel; Wood
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Materials;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01659691
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: MPC 17-337
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Feb 9 2018 10:35AM