Abstract In locations that have large truck volumes, barriers that meet the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware test level (TL) 4 or 5 standards are utilized. Unfortunately, while these designs are appropriate for tractor trailers, they are not designed to TL-6 standards, which apply to tanker trucks. To date, only one TL-6 vehicle containment system has been developed, but cost issues have prevented its widespread implementation. Consequently, critical infrastructure (i.e., bridge abutments) are not protected against tanker truck crashes, which puts critical facilities (e.g., schools, hospitals, etc.) at risk of exposure to hazardous materials after a crash. To this end, it is necessary to develop a new, cost-effective, and structurally adequate TL-6 safety barrier system. Among various aspects for the development, selecting a proper constitutive material model and model parameters is considered one of essential components, because the material model and model parameters used in computational simulation can significantly reduce time and costs for barrier design without compromising predicting power. This research is to identify the proper constitutive model and model parameters for predicting behavior of concrete in the new TL-6 safety barrier system.
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