MPC Research Reports
Report Details

Title:	Crash Modeling of High-Profile Moving Vehicles Under Strong Crosswinds Based on Computational Fluid Dynamics
Authors:	Karan Venayagamoorthy, Daniel Sanchez, and Suren Chen
University:	Colorado State University
Publication Date:	Sep 2024
Report #:	MPC-24-561
Project #:	MPC-644
TRID #:	01942856
Keywords:	aerodynamics, crash risk forecasting, crosswinds, fluid dynamics, overturning, Reynolds number, tractor trailer combinations

Abstract

Extreme wind conditions can be a formidable foe to both highway and driver safety. Strong gusts increase the likelihood of wind-induced vehicle crashes, especially for high-sided vehicles (i.e., semi-trucks) in the United States. Current understanding of wind loads on high-sided vehicles comes mostly from wind tunnel tests, along with recent contributions from computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies. However, limitations due to scaling issues (e.g., low Reynolds numbers) of wind tunnel data have constrained our understanding of the nature/uncertainties of such extreme load distributions due to high lateral wind conditions. In this research, we first conduct a comprehensive verification and validation (V&V) study of a CFD model. High-resolution CFD simulations are then used to investigate the flow around a two-dimensional rectangular cylinder that is representative of the trailer section of a high-sided vehicle. The findings of the study show that the flow past the trailer section of a high-sided vehicle is strongly asymmetrical and exhibits Reynolds number dependency compared with free flow around a rectangular cylinder. This contrasts with the assumption of a Reynolds number independence of aerodynamic coefficients made in traditional studies of overturning high-sided vehicles. The study also highlights the importance of ensuring that the model results are independent, not only of the grid sizing but also on the total domain sizing to obtain high fidelity results.

How to Cite

Venayagamoorthy, Karan, Daniel Sanchez, and Suren Chen. Crash Modeling of High-Profile Moving Vehicles Under Strong Crosswinds Based on Computational Fluid Dynamics, MPC-24-561. North Dakota State University - Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute, Fargo: Mountain-Plains Consortium, 2024.