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ABSTRACT
It is universally agreed that tire hydroplaning has a significant impact on road safety. The occurrence of this phenomenon makes it difficult to appropriately manage accelerating, braking or steering, due to a considerable reduction of wheel forces. In this research project, the longitudinal hydroplaning test was conducted, according to the common VDA test procedure under acceleration. Results are presented, which quantify test parameters during the measurement, such as vehicle velocity, gate distance and longitudinal tire slip ratio. The article further identifies the impact of test conditions (wheel normal load, tire inflation pressure and water depth) on the longitudinal hydroplaning performance. In addition, the respective dynamic tire footprint characteristics are determined and linked to the performance. In the course of the analysis, it is shown that the empirical equation, developed by Horne to predict the critical hydroplaning velocity of truck tires, can be applied to passenger car tires. These results contribute to enabling a better understanding of how footprint characteristics affect longitudinal hydroplaning performance under acceleration conditions.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company making the research possible as well as for the permission to publish the results. Special thanks to Bruno Maitre, Christophe Thiry and Romain Hansen for sponsoring the project. Moreover, the authors would like to thank our Goodyear colleagues Guy Wiesen, Fabrice Courdier, Bruno Selles, Jean-Jacques Osmont, Christian Spieker and Michael Deconinck, for their support during the measurement.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.