Smoothed particle hydrodynamics based numerical study of hydroplaning considering permeability characteristics of runway surface

Abstract The presence of water films on a runway surface presents a risk to the landing of aircraft. The tire of the aircraft is separated from the runway due to a hydrodynamic force exerted through the water film, a phenomenon called hydroplaning. Although a lot of numerical investigations into hydroplaning have been conducted, only a few have considered the impact of the runway permeability. Hence, computational problems, such as excessive distortion and computing efficiency decay, may arise with such numerical models when dealing with the thin water film. This paper presents a numerical model comprising of the tire, water film, and the interaction with the runway, applying a mathematical model using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics and finite element (SPH-FE) algorithm. The material properties and geometric features of the tire model were included in the model framework and water film thicknesses from 0.75 mm to 7.5 mm were used in the numerical simulation. Furthermore, this work investigated the impacts of both surface texture and the runway permeability. The interaction between tire rubber and the rough runway was analyzed in terms of frictional force between the two bodies. The SPH-FE model was validated with an empirical equation proposed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Then the computational efficiency of the model was compared with the traditional coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) algorithm. Based on the SPH-FE model, four types of the runway (Flat, SMA-13, AC-13, and OGFC-13) were discussed. The simulation of the asphalt runway shows that the SMA-13, AC-13, and OGFC-13 do not present a hydroplaning risk when the runway permeability coefficient exceeds 6%.