Mechanism of toppling instability of the human body in floodwaters

Extreme urban flood events occur frequently in China, often leading to heavy casualties. Thus, it is of great importance to study the mechanism of the instability of the human body in floodwaters. The results of such research can provide scientific reference for city flood control standards. In this paper, a formula for the incipient velocity of the human body, during toppling instability in floodwaters, was derived based on mechanical characteristics, instability mechanism, and critical conditions during instability. A series of flume experiments were conducted to investigate the incipient velocity of two 3D printed human body models of different sizes; the resultant experimental data was used to determine parameters in the derived formula. Additionally, grip strength was taken as a standard of a person's ability to withstand floodwaters. Finally, crowd factors were introduced, and based on this study, a criterion for the toppling instability of different subjects in floodwaters was proposed. Compared to the results of previous studies, the proposed formula can better predict the instability of the human body in floodwaters.