A review of safety guidelines for vehicles in floodwaters

Abstract

The development of guidelines for the design and analysis of street drainage systems to ensure safety of pedestrians and vehicles is an issue of fundamental importance. To prevent pedestrians and vehicles from being swept away during flooding events, the up to date guidelines are recommended in Australian Rainfall and Runoff (AR&R, 2011) report. These guidelines are based on the upper bounds on both depth and velocity; and the constant limiting velocity × depth (v•y) functions derived from the earlier works (1967-1993) associated with the stability of old-fashioned vehicles (static condition). The AR&R (2011) guideline does not include the assessment of the studies on modern vehicles (static) which were published very close or after its release (2010-2017). However, as a result of considerable modifications in the chassis design since those former investigations, several issues concerning stability of modern vehicles in floodwaters have been raised. Herein this paper ponders on both the limit functions highlighted in those earlier and recent works. Further, the reported works have highlighted that the studies performed on vehicles in the past were limited to static condition, therefore in this paper an attempt has been made to address hydrodynamic response of a non-static vehicle endangered by floodwaters. Thus, the algorithms of the hydrodynamic studies for the non-static vehicle into safe stability limits will be presented, under the consideration of few modified parameters, which involves the rolling resistance generated at vehicle tires, drag impact at vehicle's front end and driving force caused by vehicle engine.

Victims crossing overflowing watercourses with vehicles in Spain

“…However, drivers perceive their cars as heavy and stable; water forces, which cause vehicle sliding and buoyancy, are not evident. Vehicle stability on flooded roads depends on water depth and velocity; several studies analyse these factors (Martínez‐Gomariz et al, 2017; Martínez‐Gomariz, Gómez, Russo, & Djordjević, 2018; Shah, Mustaffa, Martínez‐Gomariz, Yusof, & Al‐Qadami, 2019; Shah, Mustaffa, Martínez‐Gomariz, Yusof, & Al‐Qadami, 2019; Shah, Mustaffa, Martínez‐Gomariz, Kim, et al, 2019; Smith et al, 2019; Bocanegra, Vallés‐Morán, & Francés, 2020). Horizontal water force may produce vehicle sliding, and with a depth around 0.60 m water floating may occur (Kramer, Terheiden, & Wieprecht, 2016); the depth increases buoyancy and reduces the force required to move the vehicles (Smith et al, 2019).…”

“…Horizontal water force may produce vehicle sliding, and with a depth around 0.60 m water floating may occur (Kramer, Terheiden, & Wieprecht, 2016); the depth increases buoyancy and reduces the force required to move the vehicles (Smith et al, 2019). Shah et al (2019) indicate that a small passenger car (weight ≤800 kg) that progresses slowly along a flat flooded road remains stable if the product of water velocity and depth is less than 0.70 m 2 /s. Consequently, when depth increases lower water velocity is required to drag a car, or lower depths were required at high flows (Shah et al, 2019); Teo, Xia, Falconer, and Lin (2012) indicate that deep water at low speeds can cause as much damage as shallow water at high speeds.…”

Containing a sustainable urbanized environment through SuDS devices in management trains

“…Alternatively, a group of smaller related devices in a management train can have increased efficiency, which in effect, would still adhere to the specifications of the SuDS triangle (Figure 1). Regarding aspects of a SuDS management train, controlling water quantity from the source control may be deemed the most effective location (Shah, et al, 2021). All residual stormwater runoff in the SuDS system is carried to a device that is located in site control (Stovin & Swan, 2007).…”

Froude Number Variance With Respect to the Hydrodynamic Response of a Non-Static Vehicle at a Low-Lying Flooded Roadway

“…The description of drag force has been addressed in detail in earlier studies [5,22] and [23]. Therefore, in the current section the focus was more on the drag influence assisted by the weight component parallel to the inclined plane.…”