Abstract
A vehicle negotiating a curve experiences a centripetal force that is partially supplied by the tire–pavement friction. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ design handbook, A Policy on Geometric Design of Highways and Streets (“Green Book”), dictates the design of horizontal curve segments according to the side friction (demand) factor, which is a fraction of the available friction used during a maneuver. However, the Green Book casts the side friction factor not as a measure of tire–pavement friction but as a measure of lateral acceleration. In this way, the Green Book conflates these independent concepts (tire–pavement friction versus lateral acceleration). It is shown in this work that keeping these curve design parameters independent has meaningful benefits. A rigorous mathematical clarification of the differences among the side friction (demand) factor, lateral acceleration, and coefficient of friction is developed. It is shown that changing the coefficient of friction affects the side friction factor, but the opposite is not necessarily true. An alternate metric is proposed, the performance margin
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
