A study of finite element modeling for

simulation of vehicle rollover

Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 1834, 030008 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4981573
Published Online: 28 April 2017

Zhigui Lin, Changye Liu, Juncheng Lv, Ligang Jia, Haichao Sun, and Tao Chen

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AIP Conference Proceedings 1834, 030008 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4981573 1834, 030008

© 2017 Author(s).
 A Study of Finite Element Modeling for Simulation of
Vehicle Rollover
Zhigui Lin1, a), Changye Liu1, b), Juncheng Lv1, c), Ligang Jia1, d), Haichao Sun2, e)
and Tao Chen2, f)
1
SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Corporation, Liuzhou, 545007, China.
2
State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, Hunan University, Changsha,
410082, China.
a)
zhigui.lin@sgmw.com.cn
b)
changye.liu@sgmw.com.cn
c)
juncheng.lv@sgmw.com.cn
d)
ligang.jia@sgmw.com.cn
e)
sunhaichao_hnu@163.com
f)
daniel_chen2004@163.com

Abstract. At present, the automobile ownership has been a very large figure, and growing rapidly with the social progress
and development. Automobile has been one of the most important transportation in people’s life. Accordingly, there are a
large number of fatalities and serious injuries in traffic accident every year. Vehicle safety has been paid more and more
attentions in recent years. There are several kinds of traffic accidents including frontal crash, side crash, etc., while rollover
crash is a special kind. The vehicle rollover has the lowest incidence in the all kinds of traffic accidents but has the highest
rate of seriously injuries, most of which lead to death. For these reasons, it is very necessary to study the vehicle rollover
crash. However, it’s so hard that there are a small amount of literatures studying rollover due to its variety, large degree of
freedom, and difficulty to repeat and control. The method to investigate rollover crash contains experiment, the finite
element method and rigid-body-based models. The finite element method contains many advantages such as low cost,
repeatability, detailed data and so on, but the limitation is obvious. A test and simulation has been accomplished to study
the FEM for vehicle rollover crash particularly in this paper.

Key words: Rollover crash; Simulation analysis; Finite element modeling.

INTRODUCTION
Rollover crashes are very complex and chaotic vehicle accidents. In the US, only 2.6 percent of passenger vehicle
crashes resulted in rollover, while they accounted for 5.3 percent of injury crashes and 21.1 percent of fatal crashes
[1]. There are over 26,000 serious injuries and fatalities per year occurring in rollover accidents, and there are about
50 billion dollars cost for these accidents and sufferers [2]. Rollover crashes have been paid more and more attention
because of high rate of serious injury and fatality so that more and more researchers start to investigate it.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (HHTSA) had started to investigate car rollover crashes by
test in the 1980’s [3]. Meanwhile, a lot kinds of tests had been completed, which consisted of quasi-static roof crush
test, and some dynamics laboratory-based rollover tests covering dolly test, curb-trip test, corkscrew test and so on.
However, only roof crush test (i.e. FMVSS 216 test [2]) and dolly test (i.e. FMVSS 208 test [4]) have been placed on
the standard. As its high difficulty, high cost, bad repeatability, and the appearance and development of simulation
software at the same time, vehicle rollover crashes have been studied by simulation software more and more often. A
Vehicle rollover dynamics prediction by mathematical model was conducted by Ford et al. [5] in 1969. In 1995 Cheng

2017 5th International Conference on Computer-Aided Design, Manufacturing, Modeling and Simulation (CDMMS 2017)
AIP Conf. Proc. 1834, 030008-1–030008-8; doi: 10.1063/1.4981573
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1504-1/$30.00

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et al. [6] reconstructed a Pickup truck rollover accident by the ATB model. As MADYMO were wildly used in vehicle
models, a MADYMO modeling of vehicle rollover was established by Renfroe et al. [7]. Validation of the EDVSM
3-dimensional vehicle simulator [8] and the coupled PC-CRASH-MADYMO occupant simulation model [9] were
constructed in the end of the nineteenth century. Development of MADYMO-based model for simulation of laboratory
rollover test modes was proposed by Chou et al. [12].
It is a cost-effective method to use computer software to study vehicle accidents. In 1998, Chou et al. [10]
conducted a review of mathematical model for rollover simulations. And in 2005, Chou and others [11] conducted a
literature review of rollover test methodologies. J. E. Thompson [13] predicted the vehicle crush using finite-element
techniquesin in 1970’s. Frimberger et al. [14] researched Influences of parameters at vehicle rollover. Niii et al. [15]
developed an FE model of a large-sized bus to simulate rollover. And this is the only FE model published for rollover
simulation in the open literature up until 2006. In 2006, assessment of vehicle roof crush test protocols using FE
models was constructed by Mao et al [16]. In 2007, Jingwen Hu et al. [17] made an overview of rollover associated
injuries and prevention. FEM was applied to modeling rollover tests with hybrid III dummies by Friedman et al [18].
Hu et al [19] have simulated several rollover crashes by developing a FE model for a SUV since 2007. A FE model
for Jordan Rollover System (JRS) has been completed for simulation and comparison (John H et al. 2008) [20]. In
2011, Ma et al [21] studied the vehicle structure crash worthiness in dolly and curb-trip rollover tests by FE model.
A typical microvan in market has been tested and simulated in FMVSS208 dolly test. The focus of this study is
the detailed method of modeling and simulating for the rollover crash. First of all, a FE model is built and improved.
Several typical faults of traditional vehicle model for rollover simulation would be found at the same time. Then the
data of simulation is compared with the data of test. In order to improve the reliability of simulation, the major
parameters which have impact on the results would be studied and changed over and over again.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
A typical microvan in market from China has been chosen as the study subject. First, a dolly test was completed
using government FMVSS208 dolly test data (Fig. 1). Impact a vehicle traveling longitudinally forward at any speed
up to and including 48 km/h (30 mph), into a fixed rigid barrier that is perpendicular to the line of travel of the vehicle,
and at any angle up to 30 degrees in either direction from the perpendicular to the line of travel of the vehicle. The
vehicle is placed on a device, similar to that illustrated in Figure 2, having a platform in the form of a flat, rigid plane
at an angle of 23°from the horizontal. At the lower edge of the platform is an unyielding flange, perpendicular to the
platform with a height of 4 inches and a length sufficient to hold in place the tires that rest against it. The intersection
of the inner face of the flange with the upper face of the platform is 9 inches above the rollover surface. No other
restraints are used to hold the vehicle in position during the deceleration of the platform and the departure of the
vehicle [4].
Eight acceleration sensors were installed to the automotive B pillars and C pillars for measuring the acceleration
of the vehicle. In order to record the progress of the rollover, several high-speed cameras are installed in proper places.
Only the first 2000 ms are recorded as the study subject while the rollover time is particularly long. After the test, the
displacement is measured with a three-coordinate measuring system. Next the dolly test system which containing not
only the microvan but also the dolly and the ground would be modeled to the finite element modeling in the LS-DYNA
software. Then the model would be set the initial parameters and calculated. After the calculation, the result would be
compared with the test result. During the calculation and comparison, many problems are found and analysed, solved
again and again.

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 FIGURE 1. Schematic of load condition for vehicle rollover according to FMVSS 208

Finite element (FE) modelling using traditional method

At first, the traditional modeling method [18] is used due to lacking of experience. Every part of the vehicle is
meshed to 10mm quadrilateral elements. Then, the parts will be connected with each other by welding, rigid body,
patch, joint, etc. Some unimportant parts are changed to rigid body for releasing computing time. After that, the weight
distribution will be adjusted. The Fig. 2 shows the initiatory completed vehicle model. According to the FMVSS208,
the vehicle would be installed in a platform in the form of a flat, rigid plane at an angle of 23°from the horizontal. The
installation method and related parameters are showed in Fig. 3.

FIGURE 2 Initial full-scale FE model FIGURE 3 Schematic of load condition for FE simulation

First, the platform is moving at a constant speed for a sufficient period of time. After the vehicle becomes
motionless relative to the platform, the platform is decelerated to 0 mph in a distance of less than 3 feet. The parameters
of the model are provided by the test. Three rigid walls standing for ground, platform, and dam-board are built firstly.
After that, the vehicle is tilted 23°and installed in the platform, with its tires absolutely close to the dam-board but
doesn’t interfere with it. Finally the initiatory speed of 30 mph along the longitudinal axis of the vehicle is added
before starting to calculate.
Problems appear when starting calculation, such as error messages coming up, midway stopping the calculation,
etc. The approach to solve the problems is analyzing the error messages, the abnormal animations, the abnormal energy
curves over and over again. There are many reasons of making mistakes at the time of starting to submit the calculation,
but it is easy to solve by setting each parameter carefully in the light of traditional crash simulation. Compared to the
traditional crash simulation, rollover crash simulation is easier to stop in the process of the calculation, for it has longer
calculation time, more complex forms of motion, more related parts and more kinds of connection. In the first period
of the simulation, the tire elements stick with the dam-board. The tire involucrum and contact with the dam-board are
set up to solve this problem. The involucrum also can be used to prevent the nodes of 3d-element flying out. There

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are some snap joints would fail during the vehicle rolling. In order to continue the calculation, the fail snap joints must
be deleted, which can be ignored because of the small influence to the results. There are also some other problems
such as parts failing, energy abnormality, parts’ nodes flying out, etc. The specific approaches should be used to
analyse and solve the special problems.

Proposed finite element modeling method

After the typical problems have be found and solved, an acceptable model for rollover crash simulation is
accomplished. This model, which is adjusted to adapt the characteristic of rollover such as long calculation time and
complex motion curve, can be used in general rollover crash simulation.
When the first complete simulation is finished, the motion curve and the displacement of the vehicle model will
be analyzed first. Besides, the acceleration curves will be analysed and compared with test results after obtaining the
acceptable motion curve and displacement. Finally, the slight differences of energy, motion curve, displacement,
acceleration between the simulations and the test results will be analysed and compared by synthesis to find reasons,
which will be used for a further optimization.

Motion curve and displacement of vehicle

Firstly, the main parameters, which have a great influence on the result, will be screened out by analyzing the
initial calculation result. In order to obtain a perfect result, the main parameters that have been found will be adjusted
properly. As we can see from Fig. 4, when a traditional model is used for simulation, the vehicle motion curve won’t
correspond to test since 750mm. After changing the main parameters, motion curves of simulation and test are greatly
consistent.

FIGURE 4 Vehicle motion curves

The traditional modeling method results in an inaccurate motion curve. In the circumstances, the displacement of
the vehicle body is of great difference from test (Fig. 5). As the picture suggested, after being amended, the
displacement is coincided with the test at the same points.

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 FIGURE 5 Displacement of the vehicle body

What influence the motion curve and displacement directly are vehicle’s angle, angular velocity, and bounced
height at the time of touching the ground. The vehicle’s angular velocity after threw out by the platform has the greatest
impact on the angle and angular velocity after touching the ground. And the most primary influence for the bounced
height of the vehicle is the frictional coefficient between the vehicle and the ground.
A dam-board is set up to provide angular velocity to the vehicle when it is thrown out. However, the angular
velocity in simulation is often less than it in test, for the reason that the contact area between tires and dam-board in
simulation is smaller than it in test. In order to solve this problem, a particular angular velocity which is obtained by
estimating and repeating experiment is added to the vehicle.
As the simulation result shows, the initial frictional coefficient, which comes from the empirical value of the
traditional crash simulations, is too big. And the fault parameter will result that the bounced altitude of vehicle is too
high. However, if the frictional coefficient is set up smaller than what it should be, the vehicle will not be bounced. In
this case, obviously, the displacement of the simulation goes far beyond the test. To obtain the proper frictional
coefficient, checking and trying has to be did over and over again.
The acceptable motion curve and displacement will be obtained after changing the angular velocity and frictional
coefficient repeatedly. Then the comparison of the acceleration curve, motion curve, and displacement should be
detailed. There are several methods to detail the comparison. Changing the position relations between the tires and
dam-board is an efficient method which can improve the angular velocity and the shock of tires. Besides, the center
of gravity should be adjusted to balance the height of the front and the rear of the vehicle during rollover. In order to
making the motion curve more accountable, a particular velocity will be set up on the rigid engine model, and the
different frictional coefficient should be set up on the different period of the ground.

Control of hourglass energy

The typical problems, mainly related to tire, glue, snap joint, particular element, hourglass energy, appear when
using a traditional model for rollover crash simulation. Before starting to calculate, a global hourglass control has been
set up. However, because of the calculation time is large to 2000ms, the hourglass energy still reaches 7 percent of the
total energy, and it influences the result seriously. In order to solve this problem, the individual hourglass control
would be set up to the parts which have obvious hourglass phenomenon. The hourglass energy curve of the initial
model and modified model are showed in Fig. 6. After setting up the individual hourglass control to the parts which
have obvious hourglass phenomenon, the hourglass energy is released to less than 2.4 percent of the total energy. As
we can see from Fig. 7, the total energy is influenced seriously by the overlarge hourglass energy.

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 FIGURE 6 Hourglass energy curves FIGURE 7 Classified energy curves

Vehicle vertical acceleration

After completing the first simulation, a vertical acceleration from C pillar is compared with test data (Fig. 8).
Vertical acceleration is very valuable data for finding the mistakes of the simulation and optimizing the method of
modeling. As the comparison shows, the vertical acceleration of simulation obtains three obvious peaks of wave, while
the vertical acceleration of test obtains four. In the curve of simulation, the vertical acceleration keeps about 5g from
1000ms to 1400ms, which is absolutely not in accord with the actual of situation. Importantly, the peaks of wave could
not correspond to test data. It could be concluded that the the vehicle motion curve is not what we want. It is also the
reason why a particular method of modeling is proposed. As the picture suggested, the proposed finite element
modeling method could solve this problem. As a result, every wave crest could be coincided.

FIGURE 8. Vehicle vertical acceleration

DISCUSSION
This project primarily studied a detailed FE method for simulation of vehicle rollover in FMVSS-208 dolly test.
Many researchers have studied several kinds of FE method for rollover simulation and obtained perfect result, however,
most of those dissertations do not discussed the common but important problems and solutions for them during
modeling and calculation. That is also what this dissertation want to accomplish. Only in this way can it provide a
elementary and practical reference for rollover FE simulations. The next research would be constructed is how to
optimize the vehicle body in terms of the rollover crash. LB Duan et al. [22] developed a crashworthiness design of
vehicle structure with tailor rolled blank, which could be a method to improve the crashworthiness for vehicle rollover

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crash.
However, it should be remarked that some limitations still remain in this study. Firstly, this study only focuses on
one kind of rollover test, which is on the basis of FMVSS-208. And the type of the vehicle is also single. What is a
challenge for later scholars is that studying more rollover types with more particular models.

CONCLUSION
A FE model of the typical microvan in Chinese market has been developed to simulate FMVSS-208 dolly test by
the LS-DYNA software. Firstly, a FMVSS-208 test has been conducted to observe the motion curve and areas with
large deformation of the vehicle. Then, a traditional vehicle FE model is developed and modified for the rollover
calculation. The typical problems appear when the traditional FE model is used for a rollover calculation. Finally, the
FE model will be calculated, compared, analyzed, and modified. This optimization should be carried through multiple
times, until the main parameters which have a great influence on the result are found. This is an integrated study of
the FE method for simulation of vehicle rollover, as well as the solution for the typical problems.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was financially supported by the Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
No. 51605353).
Corresponding author: Haichao Sun; Tel.: +86-15084983994; Email address: sunhaichao_hnu@163.com

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