Abstract

When a nonrotating tire moves from a quasi‐dry section to a flooded section of pavement, a transition from a nonhydroplaning to a hydroplaning state takes place; during this transition, the tire deforms continuously. With the assumption that each instant during this transition represents an equilibrium state, a tire deformation model is developed. The deformation is computed by modeling a nonrotating tire as a semi‐infinite solid, and by replacing the effects of tire inflation pressure and vertical load by a modified elastic modulus. The close agreement between the predicted results from the model and the experimentally measured tire deformation values at a limited number of points on the tire contact surface suggests that the semi‐infinite‐solid model for the tire deformation computations is a reasonable technique for determining tire elastic behavior under hydroplaning condition.