Modeling Skid Resistance of Commercial Trucks on Highways

One aspect of commercial truck safety on highways is the risk of skidding. Skidding accidents involving commercial trucks risk injury or death not only to their own occupants but also to other motorists and road users. Past research on truck skidding has been largely limited to empirical accident data analyses or experiments. Few analytical or numerical studies on the mechanisms of truck skidding on highways have been performed. This paper describes the development of a numerical simulation model that can evaluate the skid resistance available to commercial trucks on wet pavements. The model is developed using fundamental structural mechanics and fluid dynamics theories with the consideration of tire-pavement contact and tire-fluid interaction. A validation of the model was performed against experimental data found in the literature. A parametric analysis is presented in this paper to evaluate the effects of the following factors on truck skid resistance: truck speed, magnitude of wheel load, thickness of a water film on a pavement surface, and tire inflation pressure. The practical significance of the simulation model is illustrated with an analysis on the different skid resistance characteristics of trucks when unloaded and fully loaded, respectively.