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Journal Article

Measurement and Modeling of Rollover Airborne Trajectories

2009-04-20
2009-01-0109
Much has been written about reconstruction techniques and testing methods concerning vehicle rollovers. To date, most of the literature describes rollovers as one-dimensional events. Rollovers account for a disproportionate fraction of serious injuries and fatalities among all motor vehicle accidents. The three-dimensional nature of rollover sequences in which a rolling vehicle experiences multiple ground contacts contributes to the environment where such injuries occur. An analytical technique is developed to model the airborne segments of a rollover sequence as a parabolic path of the vehicle center of gravity. A formulation for the center of gravity descent from maximum elevation to full ground contact is developed. This formulation contains variables that may be readily determined from a thorough reconstruction. Ultimately, this formulation will also provide a vertical ground impact velocity at contact.
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