Design and analysis of an aluminum F-shape bridge railing

Abstract This report describes the design and analysis of an extruded aluminum truss-work bridge railing for NCHRP Report 350 test levels three and four conditions. The objective of this research is to determine if the barrier will pass the NCHRP Report 350 full-scale crash tests for test levels three and four by using the nonlinear dynamic finite element program LS-DYNA. A subsequent AASHTO LRFD analysis supported the LS-DYNA results. The design documented in this report was found to be of comparable strength to other F-shaped bridge railings so that successful crash test results are highly likely.