Characteristics of Soil-Tripped Rollovers

Techniques for soil-tripped and curb-tripped rollover testing have been developed and reported in earlier papers. The tests reported in these earlier publications were conducted with a variety of vehicles launched at speeds close to 30 mph.

Several additional soil-tripped rollover tests were conducted using a single model of mid-sized sedan launched at speeds ranging from 13 mph to 42 mph. This test series provided information about the minimum trip speed and the influence of trip speed on the characteristics of vehicle rollover.

The results of this test series as well as the previously reported tests have been studied to obtain insights about minimum trip speeds, furrow characteristics, angular velocities, rollover distances, trip and post-trip decelerations and the influence of speed on rollover mechanics.