Land vehicles – Wheeled – Attachment
Patent
1993-01-26
1993-12-28
Camby, Richard M.
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Attachment
280160, 37263, B60R 1900
Patent
active
052733157
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a device for protecting a vehicle wheel against hydroplaning on a water film by a displacement means which penetrates into the water film and is formed by a plurality of displacement elements at a distance from one another.
It is known to put a guide blade in front of the vehicle wheel to be protected against hydroplaning, which guide blade lifts the water film and deflects it to the side. Realizing this in practice has hitherto failed because of two problems. On the one hand, such a means is only promising when it is guided at a few millimeters ground clearance above the roadway, which requires highly sensitive height control for protection against roadway irregularities. On the other hand, a high dynamic pressure acts on the means at high speeds, which dynamic pressure involves considerable mechanical problems. At least the latter also applies to a known device (U.S. Pat. No. 3,680,885) in which, instead of a closed guide blade, a brush is used whose bristles each individually can be at a distance from the adjacent bristles but which, in their entirety, act like a closed blade. The proposal to replace the small ground clearance by the use of a louver nozzle (DE-A-2,552,075) is unrealistic.
The object of the invention is to create a device of the type mentioned at the beginning which is able to meet the requirements of practice.
The solution according to the invention consists in the displacement cross-section, with regard to the direction of the movement of the displacement elements relative to the water film, of the entirety of the displacement elements in contact with the water film being substantially smaller than its operational cross-section.
The operational cross-section is to mean that area in its entirety in which the displacement means acts on the liquid film in such a way that its properties responsible for the hydroplaning are decisively changed. The displacement cross-section is to mean that area portion of the operational cross-section which is acted upon by water-displacing cross-sectional portions of the displacement means. Both areas are to be determined transversely to the direction of movement of the displacement elements relative to the water film, i.e. transversely to the direction in which the displacement elements penetrate into the water film.
In means known hitherto, the displacement cross-section and the operational cross-section are identical. For example, the displacement cross-section and the operational cross-section of a known deflecting blade are equal to the product of width times height of the blade part plunging into the water film, viewed in the driving direction. In contrast, the invention is based on the idea that it is not necessary to set fixed, deflecting parts of the displacement means against the entire operational cross-section of the water film, but that it is sufficient if the displacement means is formed from a plurality of displacement elements distributed over the operational cross-section. The reason for this is that the kinetic energy which the displacement elements, at the location where they plunge in, transmit to the water located there is also imparted as a secondary action to the cross-sectional regions not acted upon directly, as a result of which the water film in its entirety is set in vigorous movement, thrown up, dispersed, permeated by air and/or sprayed. In effect, the prevention of the hydroplaning is not only due to the fact that a portion of the liquid is removed laterally from the region through which the vehicle wheel is to pass; on the contrary, the dispersed liquid remaining in this region, for the following reasons, can also no longer exert any substantial buoyancy effect on the vehicle wheel. On the one hand, a large portion of the sprayed particles strikes the wheel at a considerable height, where they can no longer exert any substantial lifting impulse thereon and are forced away to the side. On the other hand, the density and viscosity of the liquid portion remaining in the hydrodynamically effective wedge
REFERENCES:
patent: 2631692 (1953-03-01), Leslie
patent: 3650885 (1972-08-01), DeCardi et al.
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