Citation

Mukherjee S, Chawla A, Nayak A, Mohan D. Proc. Int. Tech. Conf. Enhanced Safety Vehicles 2005; 2005: 7p.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, In public domain, Publisher National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The Rural Transport Vehicle, popularly known in India as RTV, has a capacity for conveyance of 15 people and runs on compressed nitrogen gas. Incidents of rollover of RTVs have been reported in several cities, including 11 recently reported rollover incidents in Delhi. A full vehicle model of the RTV is developed in MADYMO including steering, tire and suspension. The suspension characteristics were validated using experimental accelerations measured over bumps. A torque controller is simulated to maintain set speed of the RTV in simulations. The model is used to predict rollover limits using Slowly Increasing Steer, J-Turn, and Road Edge Recovery maneuvers. The rollover limits with three different loading states, RTV without passengers, RTV with unrestrained passengers, and the RTV with restrained passengers, have been studied. Comparison with other commercial vehicles indicates that the rollover limiting speed of the RTV in dynamic maneuvers is low.