THE QUANTIFICATION OF RISK FOR ROAD VEHICLES IN CROSS WINDS

This paper presents a method for quantifying accident risk for vehicles in high winds, a physical problem for which there are a large number of independent variables. In particular the parameters that specify driver behaviour are almost impossible to quantify with any precision. Also there are several interrelated failure modes for the driver/vehicle system. The method that is described is essentially based on an extensive series of computations for different pairs of these driver parameters, that enables the areas of safety within the driver parameter plane to be determined. The variation of this area of safety with both vehicle speed and wind speed is investigated, using both time domain and frequency domain models. Suggestions are made as to how this method might be used to determine accident risk for other problems within the field of wind engineering.