KSCI to Design and Crash Test FRP Guardrail Attachment System
Kansas Structural Composites, Inc is working on a contract with the Kansas Department of Transportation to design a guardrail attachment system for composite bridge decking that will be crash tested at the FHWA test facility at the University of Nebraska. Bench testing has been completed where guard rail posts have been attached to composite decking and tests run by applying pressure to the posts to determine its affect on the bridge deck and the attachment system. KSCI's decking has performed outstandingly and will most likely premit a decrease in the size of the attachment system that will be required. This is sigificant in that it will allow an attachment system that will not protrude beyond the guardrail out into the roadway. Thus, it will not pose a hinderance to snow plows clearing the bridge deck. Another advantage of composite decking that has been discovered during the tests is that when pressure was put upon the guard rails and then released, the bridge deck did not suffer any distortion. Currently, steel deck frames in bridges are often distorted and become misaligned when vehicles strike the bridge rail. This often creates problems in repairing the bridge rails since the bridge deck usually suffers a certain amount of distortion from the impact.

Below, are some pictures from the static tests.