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The field of motor vehicle rollover research and testing has been one of multiple and varied approaches, dating back to at least the 1930's. The approach has been as simple as tipping a vehicle over at the top of a steep hill ( Wilson et al., 1972 ), to as complex as releasing a vehicle from an elevated roll spit mounted to the rear of a moving tractor and trailer ( Cooper et al., 2001 and Carter et al., 2002 ). Presenter Peter Luepke, P Luepke Consulting

Experimental methods and computational applications related to tire and wheel systems as well as vehicle dynamics and simulation topics are included in the 40 papers in this technical paper collection.

The 9 papers in this technical paper collection focus on occupant protection in accident reconstruction. Topics include: particle image velocimetry; heavy truck engine retarders; repeatability and reliability of drag sled testing; pedestrian impact on low friction surface; photogrammetric measurement error associated with lens distortion; passenger vehicle response to low-speed impacts involving a tractor semitrailer; and more.

The papers in this collection focus on the latest research related to methods and techniques for reconstructing vehicular crashes involving wheeled and tracked vehicles, pedestrians, and roadside features. Emphasis is placed on experimental data and theoretical methods that will enable reconstructionists to identify, interpret and analyze physical evidence from vehicular crashes.

Dynamic impact test represent various automotive collision conditions. The impact testing recommended practice is intended to recognize the capabilities of autonomous vehicles while at the same time recognizing the vehicle fleet into which they are introduced will consist of non-autonomous vehicles for a considerable period of time. The scope of the document is to cover the range of impact conditions expected taking into account the capabilities of the vehicle and the impact testing technology now available for performance evaluation including virtual and physical testing.

This document provides recommended practices for impact testing of ground vehicle that are also aero-capable. The scope characterizes recommended impact testing taking into account the unique design characteristics involved in aero-capable ground vehicle

The development of a repeatable dynamic rollover test methodology with meaningful occupant protection performance objectives has been a longstanding and unmet challenge. Numerous studies have identified the random and chaotic nature of rollover crashes, and the difficulty associated with simulating these events in a laboratory setting. Previous work addressed vehicle level testing attempting to simulate an entire rollover event but it was determined that this test methodology could not be used for development of occupant protection restraint performance objectives due to the unpredictable behavior of the vehicle during the entire rollover event. More recent efforts have focused on subsystem tests that simulate distinct phases of a rollover event, up to and including the first roof-to-ground impact.

Polyvinyl Butyral (PVB) laminated glass has been widely used in automotive industry as windshield material. Cracks on the PVB laminated glass contain large amount of impact information, which can contribute to accident reconstruction investigation. In this study, the impact-induced in-plane dynamic cracking of the PVB laminated glass is investigated. Firstly, a drop-weight combined with high-speed photography experiment device is set up to investigate the radial cracks propagation on the PVB laminated glass sheet. Both the morphology and the velocity time history curve of the radial cracks are recorded and analyzed to investigate the basic mechanism of the crack propagation process. Afterwards, a three-dimensional laminated plate finite element (FE) model is set up and dynamic cracking process is simulated based on the extended finite element method (XFEM).

Compared to the vehicles with conventional steering, the articulated frame steer vehicles (ASV) are known to exhibit lower directional and roll stability limits. Furthermore, the tire interactions with relatively rough terrains could adversely affect the directional and roll stability limits of an ASV due to terrain-induced variations in the vertical and lateral tire forces. It may thus be desirable to assess the dynamic safety of ASVs in terms of their directional control and stability limits while operating on different terrains. The effects of terrain roughness on the directional stability limits of an ASV are investigated through simulations of a comprehensive three-dimensional model of the vehicle with and without a rear axle suspension. The model incorporates a torsio-elastic rear axle suspension, a kineto-dynamic model of the frame steering struts and equivalent random profiles of different undeformable terrains together with coherence between the two tracks profiles.

An Active Independent Front Steering (AIFS) offers attractive potential for realizing improved directional control performance compared to the conventional Active Front Steering (AFS) system, particularly under more severe steering maneuvers. The AIFS control strategy adjusts the wheel steer angles in an independent manner so as to utilize the maximum available adhesion at each wheel/road contact and thereby compensate for cornering loss caused by the lateral load transfer. In this study, the performance potentials of AIFS are explored for vehicles experiencing greater lateral load transfers during steering maneuvers such as partly-filled tank trucks. A nonlinear yaw plane model of a two-axle truck with limited roll degree-of-freedom is developed to study the performance potentials of AIFS under different cargo fill conditions.

Obesity rates are increasing among the general population. This study investigates the effect of obesity on ejection and injury risk in rollover crashes through analysis of field accident data contained in the National Automotive Sampling System-Crashworthiness Data System (NASS-CDS) database. The study involved front outboard occupants of age 15+ years in 1994+ model year vehicle rollover crashes. Occupants were sorted into two BMI groups, normal (18.5 kg/m2 ≤ BMI < 25.0 kg/m2) and obese (BMI ≥30 kg/m2). Complete and partial ejection risks were first assessed by seating location relative to roll direction and belt use. The risk of serious-to-fatal injuries (MAIS 3+F) in non-ejected occupants were then evaluated. The overall risk for complete ejection was 2.10% ± 0.43% when near-sided and 2.65% ± 0.63% when far-sided, with a similar risk for both the normal and obese BMI groups.

This paper describes a multi-degree-of-freedom model of a three-wheeled car implemented in Matlab®. The purpose was to investigate the dynamics of the car (assumed to be rigid on its suspension) during cornering. While the problems associated with three-wheeled cars are well known, much of the guidance in the literature and off-the-shelf software assumes a conventional four-wheeled car. Consequently, the authors were approached with a battery-electric concept car which was thought to offer better performance than the existing variants because the use of hub motors lowered the center of gravity and, hence, reduced rollover coefficient. However, simulation of the vehicle model in cornering shows that the concept is still prone to instability. Indeed, it suffers greater roll velocities than a comparable three-wheeled car with an internal combustion engine (ICE) because the ratio of sprung to unsprung mass is significantly altered.

Rollover has for long been a major safety concern for trucks, and will be even more so as automated driving is envisaged to becoming a key element of future mobility. A natural way to address rollover is to extend the capabilities of current active-safety systems with a system that intervenes by steering or braking actuation when there is a risk of rollover. Assessing and predicting the rollover is usually performed using rollover indices calculated either from lateral acceleration or lateral load transfer. Since these indices are evaluated based on different physical observations it is not obvious how they can be compared or how well they reflect rollover events in different situations. In this paper we investigate the implication of the above mentioned rollover indices in different critical maneuvers for a heavy 8×4 twin-steer truck.

Studies have shown that the number of road accidents caused by rollover both in Europe and in Turkey is increasing [1]. Therefore, rollover related accidents became the new target of the studies in the field of vehicle dynamics research aiming for both active and passive safety systems. This paper presents a method for optimizing the rear suspension geometry using design of experiment and multibody simulation in order to reduce the risk of rollover. One of the major differences of this study from previous work is that it includes statistical Taguchi method in order to increase the safety margin. Other difference of this study from literature is that it includes all design tools such as model validation, optimization and full vehicle handling and ride comfort tests. Rollover angle of the vehicle was selected as the cost function in the optimization algorithm that also contains roll stiffness and height of the roll center.

The main intent of this study is to provide a simulation analysis of rollover dynamics of multi-trailer commercial vehicles in roundabouts. The results are compared with conventional tractor-semitrailer with a single 53-ft trailer for roundabouts that are of typical configuration to those in the U.S. cities. The multi-trailer commercial vehicles that are considered in this study are the A-double trucks commonly operated in the U.S. roads with the trailer length of 28 ft, 33 ft, and 40 ft. The multi-body dynamic models for analyzing the rollover characteristics of the trucks in roundabouts are established in TruckSim®. The models are intended to be used to assess the maximum rollover indexes of each trailer combination subjected to various circulating speeds for two types of roundabouts, 140-ft single-lane and 180-ft double-lane.

This paper is based on, and in continuation of the work previously published in ASEE NCS Conference held in Grand Rapids, MI [1]. Automotive seating rail structures are one of the key components in the automotive industry because they carry the entire weight of passenger and they hold the structure for seating foams and other assembled key components such as side airbag and seatbelt systems. The entire seating is supported firmly and attached to the bottom bodywork of the vehicle through the linkage assembly called the seat rails. Seat rails are adjustable in their longitudinal motion which plays an important role in giving the passengers enough leg room to make them feel comfortable. Therefore, seat rails under the various operating conditions, should be able to withstand the weight of the passenger along with the other assembled parts as mentioned above. Also, functional requirements such as crash safety is very important to avoid or to minimize injuries to the occupants.

The scope of this document is to provide review of recent history of loss-of-control accidents during airline revenue operations.

This SAE Standard provides a table of textual messages meeting the requirements for expressing “Radio Data Systems” (RDS) phrases commonly used in the ITS industry. They can be used both over the RDS subcarrier transmission media as part of a 37-bit long “Group 8a message” as well as being used to provide a common content list of phrases used in a wide number of other media and applications. This document SHALL define the normative index values to be used, extending the CEN established list to provide phrases needed by US practitioners. This standard provides non-normative textual phrases which MAY be used by implementers to ensure intelligible results. This document SHALL follow the formats and rules established in SAE J2540 in the expressions, manipulations, and use of such tables. It should be pointed out that within the rules established by this document a variety of final table are all considered “compliant” with the document, and may vary as fits the needs of implementers.

The objective of this document is to enhance the test procedure that is used for ejection mitigation testing per the NHTSA guidelines as mentioned in the FMVSS226 Final Rule document (NHTSA Docket No. NHTSA-2011-0004). The countermeasure for occupant ejection testing is to be tested with an 18kg mass on a guided linear impactor using the featureless headform specifically designed for ejection mitigation testing. SAE does not endorse any particular countermeasure for ejection mitigation testing. However, the document reflects guidelines that should be followed to maintain consistency in the test results. Examples of currently used countermeasures include the Inflatable Curtain airbags and Laminated Glass.

A study was conducted by General Motors (GM) to further expand upon the currently available research regarding the safety belt buckle environment during full scale vehicle crash tests. A previous study by GM [1] focused on the environment experienced by safety belt buckles in planar, non-rollover, vehicle crash conditions. This study expands upon that work by measuring buckle acceleration and webbing tension in a variety of full scale vehicle rollover crash tests. A variety of test vehicles, rollover crash types, seating positions, roll directions, test speeds, and safety belt systems were included in the study. Emphasis was placed on examination of the buckle response data during vehicle-to-ground impacts (roof, body, and wheel). This study reports on data recorded from 20 full scale rollover crash tests with 40 instrumented end release safety belt buckles.