01622428

Component

This paper focuses on the development of the three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for predicting and understanding the hydrodynamics of water accumulation and drainage on multi-lane highway at superelevated transitions. The model was refined and used to simulate different road geometries and conditions based on real road coordinates. Fluid quantities have been solved based on the conservation of mass and momentum in a 3D domain to capture the detail of pavement conditions as well as the physics of the fluids flow. The model was first validated based on highway straight sections with no cross slope against previous one-dimensional (1D) kinematic wave (KW) model and then extended to superelevation transitions. The sensitivity analysis on superelevation transitions includes the impacts on water film thickness (WFT) distribution due to different factors, such as longitudinal slope, cross slope, number of lanes and rainfall rate. Further comparisons of the real road results between 1D and 3D models have shown that 1D model over-predicts WFT and is not sensitive to the number of lanes. This is attributed to the fact that the cross slope is represented only through the calculation of total drainage path length and is not included directly in the 1D KW runoff calculation under steady rainfall conditions.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFD90 Standing Committee on Pavement Surface Properties and Vehicle Interaction. Alternate title: Highway Drainage at Superelevation Transitions by 3D CFD Modeling.

01618707

17-01376

English

14p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Drainage; Fluid dynamics; Hydrodynamics; Runoff; Superelevation; Transition curves

Three dimensional modeling; Water film thickness

Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; Pavements

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-01376

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 10:26AM