Development and Impact Testing of a Pultruded Composite Material Highway Guardrail

Fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials are being used to develop products for use as highway appurtenance, such as, sign supports, luminaire supports, and guardrail (crash barriers).These structures that are located alongside highways and roads, are subjected to vehicular impacts and must be designed to be "crash worthy" to ensure the safety of the driving public. A series of impact tests have been conducted as a part of this process .Based on the development and testing documented in this paper, the FR-composite timber guardrail is expected to be capable of performing well rather than mild steel and aluminium.