Modeling the mixed effects of oil and rainfall on hydroplaning

Hydroplaning is a significant issue for safe driving on wet roadways, and depends on vehicle velocity, water film, and tire tread pattern. Residual oil on the roadway can also exacerbate the occurrence of hydroplaning. Most hydroplaning studies have discussed results for only the presence of water. Furthermore, computational studies modeled the pavement surface as a smooth plane, and some modeling efforts account for texture using roughness correlations. Our study presents a pavement surface model for a grooved topology and re-examines the hydroplaning problem. Computational fluid dynamics was used to model hydroplaning by incorporating the Eulerian methodology to predict the multiphase interactions between air and water. Predictions of water film thickness using the grooved surface model were compared with simulations for a smooth pavement with a roughness correction factor, published correlations, and experimental studies. The study was extended to include oil and water, whereby three distinct phases were modeled. The work sets the foundation to proceed with a three-dimensional, fluid-structure interaction model to include a tire deforming on a pavement subjected to water flow.