While conventional road safety guardrails have effectively reduced fatalities in road accidents, they have not prevented increasing cases of serious injuries.
Swinburne’s Dr Shanqing Xu, Professor Dong Ruan and Associate Professor Hing Ho Tsang have received $358,980 funding from the Australian Government’s Road Safety Innovation Fund to assess standard barrier systems and optimise emerging safety roller barrier technology – a potential game changer for road safety.
A safety roller barrier (SRB) is a steel rail safety barrier consisting of vertical steel posts that support a series of yellow ethylene vinyl acetate rollers.
Evidence shows that SRBs have simultaneously reduced fatalities and serious injuries owing to its unique mechanism of impact protection. However, thorough understanding of this technology is still very limited.
Swinburne will work with industry partner KSI Global Australia to optimise their safety roller barriers.
Read the full media release here.
Materials for Extreme Environments 