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Breakaway Luminaire Post Model
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is continually working to improve the design and safety of roadside hardware structures. As part of this effort, the FHWA is sponsoring research to develop finite element models of various vehicles and roadside structures for performing crash simulations.
A simple finite element model of a California type 31 slipbase luminaire support was developed for performing example vehicle impact simulations. The model was developed to allow the breakaway force to be easily varied in simulations. The model can then be used to study the effect of luminaire support design modifications on safety for a variety of collision scenarios. The calculated frontal impact of a subcompact car with the luminaire post is shown in Movie 1 (for the early time base breakaway response). An additional simulation with a simplified vehicle model was performed to study the longer duration kinematics of the luminaire post after impact and the secondary impact conditions of the post with the vehicle roof. This longer duration luminaire post response is shown in Movie 2.
FHWA also performs various crash tests to investigate the response of vehicles impacting roadside structures at the Federal Outdoor Impact Laboratory (FOIL). A side impact crash test with a slipbase luminaire support is shown in Movie3. This test shows that the breakaway luminaire support performs as designed. However, this luminaire support and other roadside structures can be significantly more hazardous to occupants in side impacts. The enhancement of crash safety for side impacts is an area of continuing research.
For inquiries or comments, please contact:
Dr. Steven Kirkpatrick
Principal Engineer
e-mail: skirkpatrick@ara.com
Dr. Robert T. Bocchieri
Principal Engineer
e-mail: rbocchieri@ara.com
Robert MacNeill
Principal Engineer
e-mail: rmacneill@ara.com
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