Modeling and simulation of an all terrain vehicle dynamic responses and its driver on an uneven terrain, in rollover, and in frontal flip crashes

Abstract

A new interest in the field of dynamic response analysis is expanding as the number of accidents involving the all-terrain vehicles (ATV) are increasing in daily life. All-terrain vehicles are four wheeled motorbikes made for off-road utilities and recreation. The vehicle safety is an important feature to the public and automotive industry. Accident statistics show that deaths have been increasing year after year for this category of ATV accidents. This is due to several factors including, unsupervised and careless driving habits of the human beings and tendency of these vehicles to undergo unsafe dynamics. Rollover and Frontal flips are two of the table toppers in this category of injuries. The aim of this thesis is to reconstruct the dynamic response of an all-terrain vehicle and its driver in typical crashes. First the dynamics of the vehicle on an uneven road is examined. Next, among all the crash causes, two types of crash simulations; i.e., side rollover and frontal flip are considered. These simulations are carried out using the multibody dynamics simulation tool MSC-ADAMS and the occupant safety design analyzing tool MADYMO. The primary tasks of this thesis are (i) creating an ATV computer model, (ii) creating three different tracks for uneven road performance, roll over and frontal flip simulations (iii) including a hybrid III 50th percentile dummy to analyze the potential injuries and fatalities in these events. The results are analyzed and compared with the awareness of various specifications. Overall the study indicates that the ATV accidents could pose significant potential for injury and fatality to the driver.