Body Section Rollover Test as an Approval Method for Required Strength of Bus Superstructures

UN-ECE Regulation 66 describes the requirements of bus frames in case of rollover accident. The required strength of the superstructure shall be proved by the standard rollover accident, which is an approval test method, too. The regulation allows for the manufacturers to choose other approval test, e.g. the rollover test of body sections. This approval test is assumed to be equivalent to the rollover test. The Reg. 66. does not say to much about the problems and details of this test. This paper collects and discusses these problems and tries to find solutions. This is a very up-to date subject, while the modification of Reg. 66. - made by on international expert group in Geneva - is going on, and it is very useful to formulate and discuss the main problems on international forums. The main topics belonging to this subject are the followings: how to choose and build the body sections for testing, which parameters (geometry, mass, inertia, energy absorbing capacity) of the tested body section shall be related to the vehicle, how to perform the rollover test and how to evaluate the test results?