THE EFFECTS OF LIGHT-VEHICLE DESIGN PARAMETERS IN TRIPPED-ROLLOVER MANEUVERS - A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USING AN EXPERIMENTALLY VALIDATED COMPUTER MODEL. IN: OCCUPANT AND VEHICLE RESPONSES IN ROLLOVERS

Abstract

In this chapter, from a comprehensive text about occupant and vehicle responses in rollovers, the authors report the results of analyses of single-vehicle-accident, tripped-rollover maneuvers involving either light vehicles from four classes of ground vehicles. All vehicles, except for the passenger cars, were evaluated in both unladen and laden states. The authors note that the vehicles encountered the terrain discontinuities under varying conditions, thereby limiting the analytic utility of their results. However, the tests provided the data necessary for validation of the computer model. Results indicate that passenger cars are less prone to rollover when encountering soil terrain discontinuities in non-tracking maneuvers than are light trucks. However, when a curb is encountered, the smaller passenger car rolled over at a velocity comparable to that of light trucks, while the larger passenger car did not roll over, even when started from significantly higher initial speeds under simulation. The results also support the concept that soil-tripped rollovers and curb-tripped rollovers are qualitatively different events.