FLOOD-INDUCED SMALL CAR DRIFTING CONDITIONS BASED ON ACTUAL VEHICLE EXPERIMENTS

Abstract

 In this study, we focused on vehicle drifting accidents caused by flood currents during heavy rainwater disasters and conducted vehicle drifting experiments using an actual small vehicle on an outdoor large-scale open channel. In an open channel with a gradient of 1/100 and a width of 2 meters, asphalt pavement was applied from a position 16 meters from the upstream end, and vehicles were placed facing upstream on it. We conducted three cases, two of them with the handbrake released and one case with the brake applied, gradually increasing the flow rate and measuring the flow conditions when vehicle drifting occurred. As a result, vehicle drifting occurred in the two cases where the handbrake was released, and even when the maximum flow rate was reached in the case with the brake applied, the vehicle did not move, suggesting that whether or not the brake is used greatly contributed to the occurrence of drifting. Furthermore, compared to previous model experiment results, the water depth and flow velocity when vehicle drifting occurred were slightly smaller, indicating that there is a risk of being swept away even in milder flow conditions.