Manufacture and rehabilitation of guardrail posts using composite fabrics

The West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT) uses approximately 50,000 wood and 200,000 steel guardrail posts on an annual basis. The need to develop guardrail posts made of a different material is motivated by the high cost of steel, along with the greater difficulty associated with driving large diameter wood posts.;The primary objective of this study was to develop a Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) wood post that is more cost effective than a steel post and has smaller diameter than a conventional wood post. Another objective was to develop a portable fabric-wrapping machine for field applications.;Unwrapped and GFRP wrapped posts were tested for flexural properties. The experimental data were compared with published values. Unwrapped and GFRP wrapped posts were tested under dynamic loads to determine their natural frequencies. Free vibration tests of unwrapped, GFRP wrapped, and damaged posts were performed to establish amplitude decay for damping characteristics. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

Name thesis:degree_name

MS

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Year dc:date.available

2002

Author dc:creator

• Chamarthy, Ram

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ken Means.

• Mechanical engineering
• Civil engineering

Identifier

https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/1220

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchrepository.wvu.edu:etd-2223