ANALYSIS OF THE PROCESS OF DOUBLE-DECK BUS ROLLOVER AT THE AVOIDANCE OF AN OBSTACLE HAVING SUDDENLY SPRUNG UP

Abstract

A critical traffic situation has been explored where a double-deck bus may roll over. The factors that may cause critical situations during a bus drive have been analysed. Based on this, they may be categorised as being related to vehicle construction, vehicle operation, and road infrastructure. A situation has been chosen for the analysis where the bus without passengers avoids an obstacle having suddenly sprung up in front of the bus at a distance within which the bus cannot be stopped. A similar problem occurring in the case of a passenger car drive was analysed in study [6]; it was indicated there that the manoeuvre of avoiding an obstacle is definitely more favourable in comparison with the braking process. A model of the bus motion dynamics with 12 degrees of freedom was adopted. The vehicle trajectory was given in the form of a predefined input generated by a driver model. The course of the rollover process depends to a significant extent on the interaction between the tyres and the road surface. A semi-empirical non-linear TMeasy tyre model was chosen. The calculations were carried out with the use of a computing program specially built for this purpose, where a double-deck bus model and a driver model were applied to investigate the traffic situation as described above. The calculation results obtained have shown that the process of rollover of a bus without passengers emerges at the final stage of the obstacle avoidance manoeuvre at a speed exceeding 108 km/h. This has been confirmed by the course of changes in the pressure of wheels on the road. Based on the simulation calculations carried out, an attempt was made to determine, from the observed courses of changes in physical quantities, the values that might warn the driver about a situation of imminent danger of rollover of the double-deck bus and thus might affect driver’s actions.