Integration of virtual testing methods in automotive safety: Methodology validation for rollover protection system (ROPS)

During recent years, the integration of virtual testing methodologies has gained significant importance in vehicle development for the passive safety evaluation. The accuracy of simulation results depends basically on the correct replication of physical test into the virtual model, for example to assign the realistic material properties from the structural components and following the boundary conditions replicated from real conditions. In this study the safety standards ISO 3471_2008 and ANSI ROHVA/OPEI-2016 have been considered as references of the safety validation process of hollow section roll-over protective structure (ROPS) integrated into a vehicle. A key objective is to stablish a virtual test methodology that could be applicable across different standards considering various industry markets, as for example European, American and Asian. A sensitivity analysis is necessary to evaluate what are the main aspects that gives significant deviations in results and in which we can see the precision of results obtained by virtual testing in the different scenarios applied with different standards. This study describes how the process thoroughly evaluates the quality of the finite element model, analyzing mesh quality, boundary conditions, and applied realistic load cases. After obtaining results, a correlation is performed between simulation and test results.