Assessing Vehicle Stability in Flood Water through Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

Assessing vehicle stability forms the basis of hazard classification criteria, which helps develop safety guidelines for stream crossings and planning evacuation routes in times of floods. This research combines laboratory experiments and numerical modelling in a novel manner to assess vehicle stability. The numerical investigation is performed using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics, and an experimental study is performed on a 1:14 scale physical model. The results are analysed to determine the contribution of destabilising hydrodynamic forces in steady and unsteady flows. The vehicle stability curves by Australian Rainfall and Runoff are found adequate against all the critical conditions combined. These conditions included lower vehicle weight, poor road conditions and accelerated flow past the vehicle.