Study and Prevention of the Wind Induced Road Accidents

More information

Main author

Ciglarič, I.

Co-Authors

Moser, A.; Steffan, H.; Štrukelj, A.

Type of media

PDF

Publication type

Lecture

Publication year

2011

Publisher

20. EVU Conference, Graz

Citation

Ciglarič, I.: Study and Prevention of the Wind Induced Road Accidents. 20. EVU Conference, Gratz

Observations and measurements in the last decade show windstorms spread over the areas in the Europe where previously Aeolian risks were not high. In additional wind storms in Europe tend to be stronger and last longer. Such a trend is noticeable in the northern part of Europe as well as in the southern part o Europe toward the Adriatic Sea. In this region it is well known that the Bora wind, can reach up to 220km/h, and can blow for weeks with a speed between 50km/h and 100km/h. Preliminary studies already show that wind storms as well as the sustained high velocity winds that can be observed immediately after the windstorms, represent a notable threat to road user’s safety on the most severely exposed road sections. Particularly critical are motorways and highways, where the speed of vehicles is high.
A novel micro-traffic model is represented in this work. The micro-traffic model is based on complex dynamic models of typical road vehicles (bus, truck, truck with trailer, van, passenger vehicles etc…), which can be used to study vehicle handling and riding dynamic as well as vehicle dynamic stability. In additional, an appropriate driver model is coupled with the vehicle models. The wind loads on vehicles are precisely assessed by the Finite Element Method, based on a standard wind turbulence model. The Micro-traffic model is used to study the effect of different wind related conditions on road traffic safety. By simulating over 100.000,00 different scenarios for different vehicle types, different road surface conditions and different vehicle travel speeds as well as different wind speeds and wind directions, it was determined which are typical road traffic hazardous situations due to the wind, which may result in traffic accidents.