Guardrail Hydrodynamic Washing Machine

Road guardrails are intended for provision of vehicle traffic with minimum risk of collisions and slipping, for prevention of crossing median strip, for prevention of pedestrian falling, as well as for arrangement of pedestrian circulation and prevention of animals’ penetration into roads. In order to improve visibility of guardrails, they are equipped with special reflecting markings, cat's eyes, which indicate boundaries of roadway under conditions of poor visibility. Under poor weather conditions, which occur quite often in Central Russia, surfaces of guardrails and reflecting markings become dirty, which can lead to road collisions with severe consequences. In addition, in wintertime roads are treated with sand and salt mixture, these particles promote early failure of guardrails due to corrosion. In order to prevent the aforementioned situations, guardrails from time to time should be cleaned from pollutions. Guardrails are generally cleaned from pollutions by machinery equipped with brushes, such as municipal cleaning vehicles (mechanical cleaning). However, their application leads to destruction of guardrail surface and damages of reflecting elements. Therefore, this work is aimed at improvement of cleaning procedure of guardrails by development and production of device for contactless washing. A device for contactless washing of guardrails is proposed which would improve quality of their cleaning and efficiency of cleaning machinery. Mathematical equation is presented for hydrodynamic pressure of jet on elements of guardrails.