S. Mavromatis, K. Apostoleris, A. Laiou, G. Yannis, B. Psarianos

Pages: 47-60

Abstract
The research addresses the acceleration impact on vehicle safety during tractive mode for control road geometry parameters and vehicle speeds at and below the suggested relevant design speed values. Instrumented field measurements on speed distance data and pavement friction supply were collected utilizing a FWD C-Class passenger car and correlated against an existing dynamic model in order to examine the interaction between vehicle dynamics and road geometry. Aiming to quantify the potential safety hazard during vehicle acceleration at impending skid conditions on curves, the analysis revealed that the conventional approach of addressing vehicle safety based on posted speed management seems inadequate. Even when the speed of the vehicle is less than the relevant posted value, the acceleration effect which depends on the utilized horsepower rates may result in vehicle skidding. Among other important findings, stands also the necessity for monitoring friction supply as well as the fact that vehicles equipped with excessive amounts of horsepower rates must be driven very conservatively, especially on sharp curves combined with poor friction supply. The authors believe that besides data on speed, pavement friction and road geometry, the provision of additional information on vehicle horsepower utilization, incorporated in a more sophisticated intelligent speed adaption (ISA) process of vehicle advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in the near future, will deliver integrated and more comprehensive, in terms of safety, guidance to drivers.
Keywords: acceleration; speed; road geometry; vehicle dynamics; road – vehicle parameters