Rubberised Concrete for Impact Resistant Road Barriers

Concrete road barriers serve as essential protective structures in road traffic to ensure the safety of vehicle occupants and to effectively redirect vehicles during and after collisions with the barrier. The current study proposed the use of rubberised concrete to replace traditional concrete in road barriers. The aim is to improve the anti-collision performance by increasing the otherwise low energy absorption capacity of traditional concrete. Various experimental data from compression, bending, and high strain-rate tests on rubberised concrete were utilised, including axial and tri-axial tests, to evaluate the material performance of rubberised concrete. By employing numerical simulation, the energy-absorbing capacity, vehicular acceleration, and dynamic displacement of the rubberised concrete barriers were compared against those of traditional concrete barriers. The world’s first rubberised concrete crash test was carried out as part of this study in Melbourne, Victoria. High energy absorption resulting in low accelerations and occupant risk values were observed for rubberised concrete road barrier systems subjected to vehicle-barrier crashes. The traditional concrete barriers showed the highest damage to the barriers while rubberised concrete barriers exhibited reduced damage. The successful results led to the approval of the use of temporary rubberised concrete road barriers by Austroads in Australia. The results obtained from this study provide valuable guidelines for the application of rubberised concrete, as well as utilising rubberised concrete in other protective applications.