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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is currently conducting research at the Vehicle Research and Test Center (VRTC) aimed at reducing the number of serious and fatal head injuries due to impact with vehicle upper interior structures. A modified Hybrid III dummy head is currently used to test head injury potential from impacts with vehicle upper interior structures. This headform is propelled into vehicle upper interior structures with the front of the head facing the structure. Head impacts with A-pillars, side roof rails, and B-pillars may occur without the vehicle occupant facing directly into the structure. Since this is the case, it was decided that a featureless free-motion headform should be developed. This headform would not give the appearance of a forehead impacting the side structures of the vehicle. This paper will present the design, development, and testing of a featureless free-motion headform.

This paper summarizes the results of test maneuvers devised to measure on-road, untripped, rollover propensity. Complete findings from this research are contained in [1]. Twelve test vehicles, representing a wide range of vehicle types and classes were used. Three vehicles from each of four categories: passenger cars, light trucks, vans, and sport utility vehicles, were tested. The vehicles were tested with vehicle characterization and untripped rollover propensity maneuvers. The vehicle characterization maneuvers were designed to determine fundamental vehicle handling properties while the untripped rollover propensity maneuvers were designed to produce two-wheel lift for vehicles with relatively higher rollover propensity potential. The vehicle characterization maneuvers were Pulse Steer, Sinusoidal Sweep, Slowly Increasing Steer, and Slowly Increasing Speed. The rollover propensity maneuvers were J-Turn, J-Turn with Pulse Braking, Fishhook #1 and #2, and Resonant Steer.

During the past few years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Vehicle Research and Test Center has generated a plethora of reliable vehicle test data during their efforts to study vehicle rollover propensity. This paper provides further analyses of a small selection of some of the data. The analyses provided here derive in part from the previous work, trying to answer some of the questions spawned by earlier analyses. The purpose of this paper is to introduce several new concepts to the study of vehicle roll stability and provide case studies using the results available from the NHTSA testing. Results from several severe maneuvers are studied in detail to gain understanding of vehicle response in these cases.