Road structure – process – or apparatus – Traffic director – Yielding
Patent
1979-08-15
1983-03-29
Novosad, Stephen J.
Road structure, process, or apparatus
Traffic director
Yielding
40607, 52298, 256 1, 256 131, E04H 1222, E01F 901, A63C 1906
Patent
active
043781756
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
Posts for lighting and road signs at the side of the roads are exposed to the risk of being hit by vehicles. This relates to the road environment and its influence on damage in run-off accidents, for example. Lately, impact absorbing posts have been introduced, posts that are sufficiently soft or which break away and thereby reduce the collision forces that cause damage to road-users and vehicles.
It has, however, been observed that objects hit by a vehicle can damage following vehicles if the object is torn loose and flung about out of control. Furthermore, a driver who has just hit a post is most often so shocked that he can hardly steer the vehicle if it continues to move on. It would, therefore, be of great advantage if the object that was hit could relatively gently restrain the vehicle. The area of application could be expanded and eventually go so far as to the placing of such yielding and restraining posts along the central reservation of highways without a need for guard rails.
The present invention is a mounting device especially suited for yielding posts, for example lamp posts, but also suited for other posts located in the road environment.
The post mounting is in itself able to yield (either by means of short bent supports, or supports going through the post, or by means of an energy-absorbing attachment such as a friction attachment,) so that forces occurring when a vehicle hits the post become as small as possible.
Should a collision occur, the post casing becomes particularly heavily deformed at its base. Special measures are required to ensure that the post is not snapped off. The alternative of using a stronger design for the post itself is unsatisfactory, as the yielding of the post to the vehicle becomes too low. By anchoring the casing in supports or similar devices that in turn can yield under balanced resistance, it is possible to restrain both the post and the vehicle at the base of the post.
The following describes a flange mounting of the post. When hit, the casing of the post is bent by the vehicle to a flat shape along the ground, where the relatively thin shell of the casing splits and the post becomes partly or fully loosened at its base. The pre-shaped supports are fastened to the casing and readily follow the bending of the casing, but provide resistance when they are stretched lengthwise. They can therefore be designed to retain the post at its base even after the casing has been torn off by the vehicle.
The supports serve as an anchoring device between the foundation and the torn-off post, with the result that both the post and the vehicle hitting it are retained.
A variation of the energy-absorbing support can be obtained by using a tie plate perforated in a certain pattern. The pattern is made allowing the plate to be torn crosswise in certain parts, not completely, but so that untorn sections of the material retain the post at its base. This effect can for example be obtained by making rows of holes across the tie plate and alternatively omitting the last hole or holes in each row, so that no rupture of the material occurs at these points. The distance between the edges of the holes is relatively small and the plate breaks there when strained. A zig-zag shaped rupture pattern occurs. By adjusting the accumulation of material, it is possible in this manner to obtain supports that moderate forces. Slots can be punched in the material instead of the rows of holes. The tie plate can furthermore be designed as a tube-shaped support along the whole of the inside of the post.
FIGS. 1-5 show supports for the connection between a flange 1 and the base of a post 3.
FIGS. 6-9 show supports for mounting a post set in a foundation.
FIG. 10 shows a support device with perforated tie plate.
FIG. 11 shows an expanded support (as in FIG. 10).
FIG. 12 shows a friction attachment at the foundation.
FIG. 1 shows supports 2 fabricated from steel straps which are then welded to the inside of the casing at their upper ends and to the underside of the flange at their lower ends. The support i
REFERENCES:
patent: 2141067 (1938-12-01), Miller
patent: 2949324 (1960-08-01), Birge et al.
patent: 3478714 (1969-11-01), Keats
patent: 3693940 (1972-09-01), Kendall et al.
Hasselqvist Stig E. A.
Helenelund P. Christer
Thoreson Anders V.
Handelsbolaget Scanovator
Novosad Stephen J.
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