Design of a Dynamic Rollover Test System

A dynamic rollover test system (DRoTS) capable of simulating rollover crashes in a laboratory was designed for research use at the University of Virginia. The goal of the current study is to describe the system's capabilities and specifications as well as to explore the limitations of the system's ability to simulate rollover crashes. The test apparatus was designed to permit simulation of a single roof-to-ground interaction of a rollover crash with the potential to be modified for evaluation of pre-roof contact occupant motion. Special considerations were made to permit testing of both dummies and post-mortem human surrogates in both production vehicles and a parametric test buck. DRoTS permits vertical translation, pitch, and roll of the test vehicle while constraining longitudinal and lateral translations and yaw. The study details the ranges of test parameters capable with the DRoTS and evaluates the limitations of the system relative to rollover crash conditions. Considerations on the use of the test system and the constraints applied to the vehicle are evaluated through analytical analysis and computational modeling. The results of the analyses suggest that the DRoTS design is capable of testing vehicles in a wide variety of conditions while maintaining reasonable fidelity to rollover crashes during the duration of a single vehicle roof-to-ground interaction.