Rollover Crashworthiness of a Rural Transport Vehicle Using Madymo

In this work a full vehicle model of a rural transport vehicle (RTV) is developed in MADYMO. The steering, tier and suspension are modeled using standard modules available in the package. A speed controller was also incorporated to maintain a constant speed of the vehicle in the simulations. Validation of the model was done against experimental accelerations measured over a bump. The validated model was then used to predict rollover characteristics using Slowly Increasing Steer, JTurn, and Road Edge Recovery maneuvers. These maneuvers were conducted for three different loading conditions viz. RTV without passengers, RTV with unrestrained passengers, and RTV with restrained passengers, and the safe speeds are compared with those of other vehicles.