5. EVU – Tagung Verkehrssicherheit in Österreich - EVU e.V.

5. EVU – Tagung Verkehrssicherheit in Österreich
07. März 2008, Wien
Zdzisław DĄBCZYŃSKI / Jerzy KRAS
"WIMED" Producers of Road Signs and Safety Devices, Poland
Reduction severity of collisions with
sign post and sign structures
TU Graz VSI Austria – WIMED Poland:
The New sign posts project - PROLIFE.
Introduction
The number of Traffic Signs is growing continuously on
the roads, and so it is fact that severe injuries and
great damages of cars are often caused by impacts
against these sign pillars.
That is why there are regulations and different
solutions to safe the occupants in case of impact on
the one hand, on the other hand there are regulations,
which prescribe the minimum stiffness of signs and gantries, so that they resist also in
storms and other loads.
The first regulation is EN 12767. Thereby the poles and gantries are partitioned in high, low
and no energy absorbing constructions. To determine the level of Sign-Constructions, tests
under prescribed conditions have to be done. Full details can be found in the official
regulations.
The second regulation is EN 12899-1. In this, the sign constructions are classified within
different load types (wind-load, point-load, maximum and temporary bending).
Of course there is a big difference, if signs are placed within a town, where they cannot be
hit by stormy wind loads, or they are placed in free fields, where sometimes very strong wind
loads can be reached. Full details can be found in the
official regulation.
In the research project, a new, profile for sign posts
and sign structures was investigated concerning to
EN 12767 as well as EN 12899-1 by using the
methods of finite element simulations. Not only the
new, single profile, but also various constructions
using this profile in different settings have been
DĄBCZYŃSKI, Zdzisław – Collisions with sign post and sign structures Seite 21