The safety of a motor vehicle driving on a curve depends on many design parameters related to the vehicle, driving conditions and roadway geometry. All of them are represented in one parameter: the rollover limit that a vehicle can reach without rolling. In this paper a new methodology for predicting the rollover limit of buses is presented. This method is based on a theoretical model and dynamics test. The equations of the model represent the vehicle dynamical behaviour when the bus is being driven on a curve. The rollover limit is calculated after some dynamic tests. The results of the tests allow to characterise the behaviour, for real conditions on a turn, of many parameters involved in the model. The dynamic tests on the road and the mathematical model predict a reliable rollover limit of a bus. The knowledge of this value will increase the safety of these vehicles. (Author/publisher)
Abstract