Optimization design of highway cable barriers based on collision safety consideration

The severity of traffic accident on the highway has raised more and more public concerns on the crash safety of road traffic. In order to reduce the severity of crashes on the highway, various traffic barrier systems have been adopted. Among these, the cable barriers play a very important role in highway crashes by protecting vehicles, absorbing collision energy, changing the vehicle’s going direction, etc. In this study, the multi-objective optimization was made with objectives of crash safety indicators of cars and design variables of dimensional sizes of cable barriers. The coupled finite element model of the car together with the cable barrier system was established, and full-scale crash simulations between the car and the cable barrier system were carried out on design sample points. The nonlinear regressions of objectives were constructed by using the radial basis function. The Pareto sets and the optimal solution were obtained by using the multi-island genetic algorithm. The optimal solution showed improved performance compared to the original design, which can provide efficient guidance for the design of highway cable barriers.