Title: Comprehensive rollover testing of paratransit buses

Authors: Cezary Bojanowski; Leslaw Kwasniewski; Jerry W. Wekezer

Addresses: Transportation Research and Analysis Computing Center, Energy Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Building 222, Argonne, IL 60439, USA ' Department of Civil Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology, Al. Armii Ludowej 16, Warsaw 00-637, Poland ' Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, 2525 Pottsdamer Street, Tallahassee, FL 32310-6046, USA

Abstract: The paper presents verification and validation procedures for the originally developed FE model of a paratransit bus, which was built for rollover test simulation. Verification of the FE model is primarily performed through analysis of the energy balance during rollover test. Series of validation experiments were designed and performed in hierarchical (multi-scale) manner. The verified and validated FE model was used to perform sensitivity analysis of the bus response to changes in material properties as well as initial conditions of the test. A measure named Deformation Index (DI) was proposed as a new quantifier of the overall deformation for easier interpretation and comparison of the rollover test results. Safety margin of the bus is estimated based on this new concept.

Keywords: rollover testing; UN-ECE Regulation 66; ECE-R66; crashworthiness; paratransit buses; finite element analysis; FEA; heavy vehicles; simulation; model verification; model validation; energy balance; deformation; vehicle safety.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHVS.2013.051103

International Journal of Heavy Vehicle Systems, 2013 Vol.20 No.1, pp.76 - 98

Published online: 07 Nov 2013 *

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