On-Board Evaluation of Pavement Wetness from Water Spray

Abstract

The paper presents an accelerometer-based system that can be implemented in a passenger car to estimate water depths on a road surface. Tests conducted on various road surfaces at different vehicle speeds allow the determination of an appropriate location of the accelerometers and define a relevant filtering of the recorded signals. Results show that the system can relate acceleration amplitudes to water depths lower than 0.5 mm. The potential use of the system to warn drivers under adverse weather conditions, especially when skid resistance drops during and after a precipitation, is presented and discussed.

Keywords

• road safety
• water depth
• accelerometric signal
• signal filtering
• skid resistance