Simulation Research on Highway Driving Stability Early Warning System Under Crosswind Conditions

Aiming to address the issue of highway traffic safety under crosswind conditions, this study utilizes the CarSim/TruckSim simulation platform to systematically analyze the effects of crosswind speed and direction on the driving stability of cars and trucks. A safety speed model is developed for different road adhesion coefficients, and a highway crosswind warning system is designed. Through 625 simulation experiments, the study reveals that lateral offset, lateral acceleration, and lateral load transfer rate are significantly influenced by vehicle speed, wind speed, wind direction, and road adhesion coefficient, with the road adhesion coefficient identified as the key factor. Separate safety speed models for cars and trucks under various road and crosswind conditions are established. The findings are as follows: for cars, crosswind speed and direction impact safe driving speed only when the road adhesion coefficient is 0.1. Overall, for constant wind direction, safe driving speed decreases as wind speed increases; at a constant wind speed, safe driving speed gradually decreases as wind direction shifts from 45° to 135°. For trucks, when the road adhesion coefficient ranges from 0.1 to 0.9, the relationship between safe driving speed, wind speed, and wind direction mirrors that of small cars. However, the critical safety speed for trucks is 40% lower than that for cars under identical crosswind conditions when the road adhesion coefficient is 0.1. Based on the Visual FoxPro platform, which enables real‐time early warning decision‐making through the integration of the safety speed model, the highway driving stability early warning system (comprising information collection, processing, and release modules) is applied to the Zhengzhou Taohuayu Yellow River Highway Bridge case. The system is verified to significantly enhance highway driving safety and provides technical support for dynamic safety management and control of highways under crosswind conditions.