Models that provide estimates of wet weather speed reduction, as well as analytical and empirical methods for the prediction of hydroplaning speeds of trailers and heavy trucks, were gathered and verified in a field study. Pavement properties needed to estimate the water film thickness produced during sheet flow were obtained from the literature and field studies. The investigators have been able to formulate analytical equations for predicting the critical water film thickness with respect to hydroplaning under different road geometric conditions, such as, straight runs, super-elevations, and transition sections. A wet weather crash analysis was performed using crash statistics, geometrical data, pavement condition data, and other relevant information available in numerous Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) databases. The results of this effort indicate that 1) wider sections are more likely to produce hydroplaning crashes; 2) dense-graded pavements are more likely to induce conditions conducive to hydroplaning than open-graded ones; 3) National Cooperative Highway Research Program's PAVDRN software would have predicted, to a significant degree of accuracy, most of the documented hydroplaning incidents; and 4) the PAVDRN program is relatively unreliable for predicting hydroplaning in the inner lanes.
The primary findings of this research can be highlighted as follows. Models that provide estimates of wet weather speed reduction, as well as analytic...
Models that provide estimates of wet weather speed reduction, as well as analytical and empirical methods for the prediction of hydroplaning speeds of...
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United States Department of Transportation
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