THE INVESTIGATION AND MODELLING OF CORKSCREW ROLLOVERS

Two increasingly important areas of vehicle crashworthiness are the study and modelling of rollovers, as next generation vehicles are being designed with rollover countermeasures This paper describes the corkscrew rollover phenomena, and the analysis techniques used to model it. In the ADAC corkscrew rollover test, two wheels of the test vehicle strike a 6 m long ramp which is 1.19 m high at the launch point. After travelling up the ramp, typically at around 80 km/h, the vehicle rolls onto its roof. Papers exist on the modelling of lateral rollovers, but only one reference is known to the authors on modelling a corkscrew rollover [1].