Evaluating Hydroplaning Potential of Rutted Highway Pavements

Abstract

Hydroplaning is a major cause of accidents in wet-weather driving on highways. The presence of surface runoff or ponding on pavement surface can cause a fast moving vehicle to hydroplane if the vehicle speed equals or exceeds the hydroplaning speed. Rutted highway pavements present increased safety risks because the ruts along their wheel paths collect water during wet weather, thereby reducing the hydroplaning speed due to the higher water depths along the rutted wheel paths. This paper proposes an analytical framework to evaluate the hydroplaning potential of rutted highway pavements using a finite-element computer simulation model. An analysis is presented to show that the presence of ruts has a significant effect on the vehicle hydroplaning speed of a rutted pavement over the range of rut depths commonly encountered on expressways and major arterials where traffic speeds are high and hydroplaning is an important safety concern.