Simulation for structure Optimization design on truck rollover test

Safety for the occupants of medium-heavy truck is a prime consideration for cab structure design. Among front, rear impact and rollover accident, it is rollover that results in severe Casualty for occupants. Especially during the whole process of 180° rollover accidents, including two steps,the first step is 90° rollover, the second step is 90° rollover up to 180°. A new more legal and strict rollover safety test requirement is specified by ECE R29-03 of amendments to ECE R29-02. The non linear explicit finite element program LS-DYNA was introduced.In this paper, the application of this numerical method by the example of a real heavy truck of FAW having been passed according to ECE R29-02 is presented and compared with new requirements of ECE R29-03. The most important is a good feasible laboratory test method is found by comparison of simulation result. Finally, the paper gives a low-cost and reduced-weight improvement measures for cabin structrue optimization design in order to pass the approval test of ECE R29-03.