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A typical production transit bus with vertical pillars of small section size, low gauge and low strength steel, exhibits extensive lateral pillar side-sway collapse (matchboxing) in rollover impacts. This matchboxing allows rollover of the bus onto its roof. LS-DYNA simulations demonstrate that roof pillars of high strength steel or inexpensive E-glass fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) pultrusions can prevent matchboxing and arrest the rollover of the bus. However, for the same space envelope, pultruded FRP pillars can be at least 41% lighter than high strength steel square tubes exhibiting the same bending moment capacity.

The influence of fiber architecture on the strength of a composite panel for the same fiber/resin system is discussed in this paper. The attention is focused on the two failure modes, which are usually considered the most critical in designing with polymer composites, delamination and flexural failure. The investigation is carried out with the aid of a four point-bend test fixture, whose geometry only varies between the two test configurations, according to ASTM standards D2344 and D790. Investigation covers four prepreg tape laminates, namely the unidirectional, multidirectional, quasi-isotropic and cross-ply, and two woven fabrics, namely the 2×2 twill and 8-harness satin weave. Lastly, design considerations and engineering solutions adopted by Lamborghini for the development of the body of the new Murcièlago are discussed.