Modular Hinged Roadway Barrier for Impact Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing roadway barriers face issues such as excessive deflection upon impact, high costs, and difficulties in transportation, installation, and removal.
Innovation Solution
A modular roadway barrier system comprising hingedly connected barrier modules that can be easily transferred by a transfer vehicle, featuring a hinge mechanism with a pin that allows for rotational movement between modules, enhancing mobility and impact attenuation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If barriers are made fixed and permanent to improve protection, then safety is improved, but mobility and ease of installation are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The barrier is divided into multiple modular segments that can be connected together. Each segment can be independently handled during installation and removal, while the connected segments provide continuous protection. This segmentation allows the barrier to be transported in manageable pieces and reconfigured as needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The barrier incorporates movable components including telescoping sections that can extend and retract, and rotating end sections that can pivot. These dynamic features allow the barrier to adapt its configuration during installation and removal operations, improving mobility while maintaining protective function when deployed.
2Ease of operation
If barriers are made movable to improve mobility, then ease of installation is improved, but protection capability is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The barrier uses telescoping mechanisms with interlocking surfaces and rotating end sections that can pivot during installation. When deployed, these movable features lock into stable configurations that provide continuous, reliable protection. The dynamics enable easy installation while the locked deployed state ensures protective function.
Solution Approach 2:
Modular segments with standardized connection interfaces allow the barrier to be assembled and disassembled efficiently. The segments maintain structural integrity and protective capability when connected, while enabling mobility during installation and removal operations.
3Ease of operation
If barriers use complex connection mechanisms to improve mobility, then ease of installation is improved, but device complexity is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The telescoping and rotating features utilize mechanical advantage through inclined surfaces and lever arms. These passive mechanical mechanisms enable movement and configuration changes without requiring complex active control systems, motors, or electronics, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Standardized connection interfaces between modular segments simplify the overall system complexity. Each segment uses consistent connection mechanisms that can be assembled and disassembled using similar procedures, reducing the need for multiple different complex connection types throughout the system.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The barrier system provides improved protection against vehicle impacts by reducing deflection and enhancing mobility, facilitating efficient transportation and installation, while potentially reducing costs associated with traditional barriers.
Implementation Method 1
a guided path of travel including a change of direction to allow the given one of the barrier modules to rotate with respect to the adjacent one of the barrier modules
Implementation Method 2
allow the given one of the barrier modules to rotate with respect to the adjacent one of the barrier modules
Data Source
AI summary
A barrier for a roadway (e.g., a highway, bridge, or other road), which can be used to manage vehicular traffic, such as to establish lanes, protect motorists and other people (e.g., pedestrians, construction workers, etc.) against crashes or other impacts, and/or other purposes, and which may be configured to enhance its use and performance, such as by better protecting the motorists and others when impacted by vehicles (e.g., reducing deflection by deflecting less or substantially not deflecting and/or otherwise improving protection provided by the barrier), facilitating transportation, installation, removal, and/or transfer of the barrier at the roadway, and/or enhancing other aspects of the barrier. For example, the barrier may be designed for enhanced mobility such that components of the barrier may move relative to one another to allow the barrier to be transferred by a transfer vehicle from one location at the roadway to another rotation at the roadway as the components of the barrier remain connected.