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Abstract
Roadside barriers are important safety devices installed on highways to mitigate the severity of injuries caused by crashes of errant vehicles. The two-bar metal bridge rail is a commonly used roadside barrier in North Carolina and is recognized for its performance and aesthetics. Currently, all safety devices used on U.S. highways must be tested to meet the safety criteria specified by the Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware (MASH). This thesis presents the research using finite element (FE) modeling and simulations to evaluate the performance of a two-bar bridge rail for its compliance with MASH TL-3 requirements. The modeling and simulation work were conducted on the two-bar bridge rail under vehicular crashes of a 2010 Toyota Yaris, a 2007 Chevy Silverado, and a 2014 Chevy Silverado at a speed of 62 mph (100 km/hr.) and at a 25 angle. The MASH evaluation criteria A, D, F, and H were used to access the impact performance of the bridge rail. In addition, the simulation results were compared to test data of vehicles impacting the bridge rail under the same impact conditions. The simulation results showed that under MASH TL-3 conditions, the bridge rail could safely contain and redirect the test vehicles. Furthermore, the simulation results were shown to generally agree well to the actual test data and satisfied the MASH evaluation criteria.