Dynamic behaviour of high-sided road vehicles subject to a sudden crosswind gust

High-sided road vehicles are susceptible to a sharp-edged crosswind gust, which may cause vehicle accidents such as overturning, excessive sideslip, or exaggerated rotation. This paper thus investigates the dynamic behaviour and possible accidents of high-sided road vehicles entering a sharp-edged crosswind gust with road surface roughness and vehicle suspension included. The high-sided road vehicle is modelled as a combination of several rigid bodies connected by a series of springs and dampers in both vertical and lateral directions. The random roughness of road surface is generated from power spectral density functions for various road conditions. The empirical formulae derived from wind tunnel test results are employed to determine aerodynamic forces and moments acting on the vehicle. After the governing equations of motion are established, an extensive computation work is performed to examine the effects of road surface roughness and vehicle suspension on the dynamic behaviour and vehicle accidents. It is demonstrated that for the high-sided road vehicle and wind forces specified in the computation, the accident vehicle speed of the road vehicle running on the road of average condition is relatively smaller than that running on the road of very good condition for a given crosswind gust. The vehicle suspension system should be taken into consideration, and the accident vehicle speed becomes smaller if the vehicle suspension system has softer springs and lighter dampers.