by cidaut | Jun 20, 2017 | Sin categoría
Probably it would cause an accident with not determinate results for passenger and other vial´s users, due to the highest containment level installed on EU-roads is currently designed to vehicles up to 38tn at 65Kph and they are mostly made of conventional steel (Mild Steel).
The latest tests performed by HIPEBA project for very high containment level systems made of HPS (High Performance Steels), articulated Heavy Good Vehicles overweight at higher speed (It involves higher impact energy), open the door to the massive usage of HPS in road safety barriers to increase the containment levels in safety barriers.
HIPEBA, High Performance Steel for Safer and more Competitive Barriers, is a project funded by the European Union’s Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS). Its main objective is achieveing more competitive road restraint systems performed by HPS in terms of both industrial costs and societal benefits.
Although the project is still ongoing, the results show some of the potential advantages of using the HPS in this kind of barriers. The tests involved not only Heavy Good Vehicles but also light passenger cars (up to 900 Kg.). This is because the system must contain the biggest vehicles in a safe way and in case of impact with light vehicles must not be too severe for the passengers.
Therefore, it was shown that thanks to the use of the HPS, the limited deformation level of the barriers, the lack of potentially hazardous projectiles and fragments and the successful truck redirection without rolling over or hitting dangerous obstacles confirms the excellent absorption capabilities of the HIPEBA road safety barriers. Nevertheless, the tests showed that there are still possibilities to get an optimized system in terms of weight reduction. Therefore, the next steps will be devoted to this system optimization.
The Spanish public television La1, the private Spanish channel Cuatro and El Norte de Castilla local newspaper have covered a real scale demonstration of safety barriers crash test resulting from the latest findings of the HIPEBA Consortium research. The test, carried out at the CIDAUT Foundation facilities, shows a 44 tones truck impacting the road safety barriers at a speed of 70 km/h.
The HIPEBA Consortium will keep striving to achieve its objective in developing safer and more competitive road restraint systems by using high-performance steels.
VIDEOS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tTSMgwPK6g (Telediario de la 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPnvRqjb2MA (Noticias Cuatro)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC4oAHtN3Ls (Norte de Castilla)
by cidaut | Feb 5, 2016 | Sin categoría
HIPEBA (“High Performance Steel for Safer and more Competitive Safety Barriers”) is a EU-funded project that focuses on the development of safer and more competitive road restraint systems by using high-performance steels. HIPEBA is funded under the Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) framework programme. The Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) provides funding for high-quality research projects that support the competitiveness of the European Coal and Steel industries.
Objectives
- Map current and future performance-related requirements for safety barriers.
- Determine how steels with enhanced material characteristics can contribute to improve the performance of safety barriers in all stages of their life cycle.
- Deliver criteria for the technical implementation of high-performance steels into road safety barriers.
- Demonstrate that introducing high-performance steels in safety barriers can make products more competitive and yield economic revenues for EU’s industry and society, compensating the initial purchase cost.
- Develop and test pilot designs that demonstrate the benefits of high-performance steels.
- Ensure that road safety barriers manufactured with high-performance steel meet the required certification and approval processes.
Why?
The European Union, a world leader in the steel industry, is facing increasingly fierce competition from non-EU producers. Advanced research is essential for European industry to remain competitive, as well as a deeper understanding of the paramount importance of high-performance steel within the everyday needs of the road safety sector.
With the purpose of supporting this leadership, HIPEBA is a ground-breaking initiative relevant to the maintenance and new construction of EU road infrastructures, as the latest and safest technology must become available to European road users.
Who?
The HIPEBA consortium has gathered a group of specialist organisations from industry, academia and research securing a successful implementation and deployment of its planned activities.
News & Recent Events
The third HIPEBA consortium meeting takes place in CIDAUT facilities (Spain) on 13 October 2015
All partners of the HIPEBA project gathered in Valladolid (Spain) to review the work done during the last year -mostly under Work Package 1- and to discuss the work plan for the next months. In particular, the consortium agreed on the next steps to successfully complete the tasks under Work Package 2 (“Material Properties and processes analysis“) by the end of the year. In addition, a tele-conference was set up for 28 October in order to schedule the imminent characterization of steels tests. The results of these tests will provide a wide knowledge about the high performance steels which would be used in the barrier systems.
HIPEBA meeting hold 13 October 2015 Cidaut facilities.
The HIPEBA project was invited to the TRA2016 poster session
The European Commission has officially invited HIPEBA (“High Performance Steel for Safer and more Competitive Safety Barriers”) to be present during the 6th Transport Research Arena (TRA2016) poster session. The Smart Transportation Alliance (STA), leader of the project’s communication and dissemination efforts, will be present at the TRA2016, the most important transport research event in Europe, which will take place in Warsaw (Poland), from 18 to 21 April 2016.
by cidaut | Jul 13, 2015 | Sin categoría
LIFE+ New Jersey Project has entered its final stretch, with the installation in a road of a section of the concrete with end of life tires (ELTs) barrier developed by SIGNUS and tested in Cidaut facilities.
Shortly after the broadcast event held in the Committee of the Regions in Brussels, last March, Project Consortium proceeded to the start of the final milestone of the project, the installation, in the M-511 highway of the Community of Madrid Road Directorate, a stretch of concrete safety barrier with ELTs chips in concrete composition.
This barrier proves to be safe in the corresponding full scale crash test (according to the EN 1317 standard for road restrain systems), it has a lower density when compared to equivalent barriers made of conventional concrete. Furthermore, its lower density contributes to a lower transport costs and therefore a lower carbon footprint.
The use of ELTs chips in the concrete composition, as well as providing mechanical properties equivalent to those of conventional concrete, also the detached elements are reduced, since the elastic properties of the ELTs chips contribute to better hold of the cracked areas after an impact.
The project partners visited in mid-June the pilot stage to check in detail the good adaptation of the new barrier installation developed highway.
LIFE + New Jersey Project that started in September 2011, ends within June 2015, proving that residues such as those coming from the tire’s end of life can be used to improve the mechanical properties of concrete.
by cidaut | Mar 9, 2015 | Sin categoría
On March 3rd, a diffusion event organized by the European Road Federation about works carried out on New Jersey project (New Generation of New-Jersey safe barriers using recycled materials and rubber form end-of-life tyres) took place. This event was held in Brussels, at the Committee of the Regions, the EU’s Assembly of Regional and Local Representatives, matching a meeting of the Environment, Climate Change and Energy (ENVE) group of the Committee of the Regions.
All New Jersey Project works were summarized by the Region of Madrid General Roads Directorate, as well as other Research projects supported by the Region of Madrid on Infrastructures.
Besides the main results of New Jersey Project, other Projects related with sustainable Infrastructures and efficiency were introduced by Acciona, Signus, and Cidaut Foundation, some of them related to LIFE + Program.
Cidaut Foundation made a review on Regional concerns of the Green eMotion project results, by showing a successful implementation of electric mobility schemes, as well as the standardization road map, as proposed by Green eMotion parners. Additionally, the Illumetric system for luminance and illumination efficiency assessment was introduced, showing several case samples of the way it can help reaching an effective public spending.
Besides these projects speeches, new Life Programme 2014-2020 details were introduced by DG ENVI European commission member, Mr Hervé Martin, as well as the new Public Procurement Directive, oriented to boost innovative solution on public contracts.
Next steps on New Jersey Project will be the implementation of one of the barriers developed on a Road on the Region of Madrid, dedicated to evaluate actual in-site performance. This implementation will be installed during March 2015 as a permanent barrier, and will be monitored the following months, for evaluating its performance. New Jersey Project is scheduled to end on July 2015.
by cidaut | Jul 4, 2014 | Sin categoría
Jersey project (http://www.lifeproject-newjersey.com/) is a Life+ project which main objective is to demonstrate and validate a new generation of eco-friendly safety barriers with improved impact absorption performance made of recycled rubber, recycled plastics and concrete, by means of developing, designing and manufacturing the barriers and later on testing, demonstrating and validating them in a real road stretch.
Every day 3,6 people die at Spanish roads, as announced by the Dirección General de Tráfico. Though this figure is considerably lower than the 2000 average, there is still a long way to go to reach our complete safety. A good alternative to mitigate accidents and injuries is the improvement of the dampening properties of safety barriers, decreasing their stiffness and increasing the energy absorption. Moreover, if recycled rubber in form of end of life tires (ELT’s) and secondary plastics are part of the equation, then you have a safer and eco friendly barrier, which is exactly New Jersey’s main goal.
New Jersey project Consortium consists of: the Dirección General de Carreteras de la Comunidad de Madrid, Acciona Infraestructuras, Signus Ecovalor, Cidaut and the European Union Road Federation (ERF). Together, New Jersey partners have undertaken the study of the amount of rubber that can be added in the barrier, and how to include it; and the development of a elastic cover for the used rubber. Two prototypes were designed in the project and scale models of the two types of barriers have been designed, and manufactured.
Prototype 1 consists of a New Jersey Barrier with a coating of ELTs, plastics and Resins. For this prototype a material analysis was performed. Different designs were proposed and evaluated and then real scale prototypes were manufactured. Finally, EN 1317 crash test ended on July 2013.
For this prototype a material analysis was performed as well, and then a barrier was designed and produced. A summary of the results of the tests can be found on the project website (http://www.lifeproject-newjersey.com/activities.php).
Ongoing work currently focuses on prototype 2 (mixed concrete with ELTs). Prior to evaluating Prototype 2 behaviour on full scale vehicle crash test, according to EN 1317, during the month of May, several pendulum dynamic tests have been performed to evaluate impact behaviour of selected mixed concrete with ELTs formulation. (http://www.lifeproject-newjersey.com/images/ACTION32.pdf)
