Recent research on buses has associated life threatening danger with bus rollover. As a result, an alarmed industry has focused attention on the need to develop a stronger bus structure that protects survival space in the event of a rollover. Already in effect in Australia is a regulation concerning the performance of buses in rollover accidents and a similar regulation is being considered in Europe.

However, because improving rollover performance currently requires many iterations of testing and development, there is need for a less costly and more efficient development process. One alternative is the combined use of computer simulation and rollover testing. As a step in this direction, this paper describes the computer simulation of a bus rollover test.

First, as a base, a live rollover test was conducted and the mode of deformation was studied. Next, window pillar test pieces were impact tested for absorbed energy characteristics. These impact tests were then simulated with the finite element code LS-DYNA in order to study efficient and accurate modelling techniques. Applying the knowledge gained, a complete bus structure involving shells, beams and rotational springs was developed and a rollover test was simulated.

The simulation results compared well with the live test results in both deformation mode and amount of deformation. From this simulation, it was determined that 42% of the initial potential energy was absorbed as plastic deformation and the remaining 58% was dissipated as elastic energy. The results confirmed the usefulness of the bus model.