Bio-Inspired Reusable Crash Cushions with Superior Energy-Absorbing Capacity

Roadside safety hardware, such as longitudinal barriers and crash cushions, is part of the highway infrastructure that is used to protect an errant vehicle from crashing into fixed roadside objects in a well-controlled manner. Despite constantly improved design and standardized full-scale impact testing of the roadside safety hardware, more than 3% of United States traffic fatalities are caused by the inefficiency of the roadside safety hardware. Innovative designs are urgently needed to improve the level of safety and decrease the severity of accidents. In nature, many plants and animals are optimized to adapt to various overload conditions and have demonstrated superior impact-resistant and energy-absorbing capabilities. Careful examination of these biological structures may inspire a new generation of roadside safety structural designs. This project comprehensively reviews the structure-property-performance relationship of the exemplary biological materials and demonstrate that the strategies used by the various biological role models can be understood, abstracted, modified, and transferred to bio-inspired roadside safety hardware.

• Record URL:
  • https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/77895
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Nebraska, Lincoln

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  Omaha, NE  United States  68182

  Mid-America Transportation Center

  University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  2200 Vine Street, PO Box 830851
  Lincoln, NE  United States  68583-0851

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Jin, Congrui
  • 0000-0003-0606-5318
  • Moussavi, Arman
  • 0009-0005-4361-4963
  • Steelman, Joshua
• Publication Date: 2024-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Barriers (Roads); Biodynamics; Crash cushions; Design; Dissipation; Impact loads
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Materials; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01933068
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 25-1121-0005-051, MATC-UNL: 004-44
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Oct 9 2024 3:15PM