SAFER · Innovative Concrete Barriers for Forgiving Road Infrastructure
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-03-01 → 2019-02-28
- EU contribution
- €163,649
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-CAR
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Innovative Concrete Barriers for Forgiving Road Infrastructure
The project focused on the development of SAFER road barriers, made with Steel fibre reinforced Rubberised Concrete, including rubber particles and steel fibre obtained from End-of-life tyres. The recycled tyre products, when incorporated in concrete mixtures, increase the deformability and energy absorption capacity of the material, that can reduce the effects of collision. This research is aiming to address the issue of road fatalities in road transport, specifically aiming to reduce fatalities, in accordance with the goal set by the White Paper on Transport. With motorcyclists being the most vulnerable users, suffering from frequent fatalities in crashes involving road barriers, the European Road Assessment has indicated the critical need to adopt improved barrier designs. This research is important for society, not only because it targets the societal issue of road fatalities, but also for providing an alternative use for End-of-life tyres by using them into a high value application, contributing to the concept of circular economy. The development of SAFER road barriers was achieved by reaching the objectives of investigating the energy absorption properties of rubberised concrete reinforced with recycled tyre steel fibres under static and dynamic loading, the durability of the proposed material in regard to safety barrier performance requirements, investigating numerically the performance of rubberised concrete reinforced with recycled tyre steel fibres and developing design recommendations for steel fibre reinforced rubberised concrete barriers. The optimum Steel Fibre reinforced Rubberised Concrete mixture developed and recommended barrier designs are provided within the technical report.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
One of the top ten goals set by the White Paper on Transport is to reduce fatalities in road transport. The European Union is aiming to halve road casualties by 2020, in line with the long term goal to move close to zero fatalities by 2050. Despite the reduction in road fatalities in the EU since 2010, there are specific countries where the numbers are increasing. In addition, the yearly decrease rate in road fatalities for Europe as a whole is slowing down. In order to reach the goal set for 2020, action should be taken immediately. The most vulnerable road users are motorcyclists, who are currently suffering from frequent fatalities in crashes involving road barriers. The European Road Assessment has indicated the critical need to adopt improved barrier designs to protect vulnerable road users. While rubberized concrete has been recommended for road barriers, challenges involving strength and durability of the material have not been addressed. This research proposes to develop optimised steel fibre-reinforced rubberised concrete mixtures as well as road barrier designs, which will lead to the development of SAFER road barriers with outstanding deformability and structural integrity; thus paving the way for forgiving road infrastructure. The use of recycled rubber and steel wires (obtained from End-of-life tyres) supports the Horizon 2020 Transport Research and Innovation Act priorities for sustainability and resource efficiency (including the Circular Economy package).
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- TECHNOLOGIKO PANEPISTIMIO KYPROU · LemesosCoordinatorCyprus
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union