Protecting Asphalt Pavements against Frost Action with an Electrical Heating System: Numerical Investigation
Publication: Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 36, Issue 4
Abstract
This paper is concerned with electrically heated asphalt pavements; it numerically explores the possibility of such technology to actively suppress frost penetration under seasonal cold-weather conditions. A thermal model is outlined for the investigation based on the one-dimensional heat equation including latent heat effects. This model is applied to a multilayer medium containing a buried heat source representing the heating system. Utilizing cold-climate weather data from northern Finland, calculations were performed to track the evolution of the frost front depth in an idealized pavement structure with no heating. Then the model calculations were repeated with the heating activated. A parametric study was performed with different heat production intensities and several embedment depths for the heating system. It is numerically demonstrated that embedded electrical heating can suppress frost penetration depth and duration in asphalt pavements, rendering the explored application practically feasible.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This work was carried out as part of the Snowless project. Snowless has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No. 831120.
References
Adam, Q. F. 2021. “One dimensional thermal code.” Accessed May 30, 2022. https://github.com/QuentinFelixAdam/One-dimensional-thermal-code.
Adam, Q. F., E. Levenberg, T. Ingeman-Nielsen, and A. Skar. Forthcoming. “Modeling the use of an electrical heating system to actively protect asphalt pavements against low-temperature cracking.”
Andersland, O. B., and B. Ladanyi, and ASCE. 2003. Frozen ground engineering. 2nd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Bäckström, M. 2000. “Ground temperature in porous pavement during freezing and thawing.” J. Transp. Eng. 126 (5): 375–381. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-947X(2000)126:5(375).
Bentz, D. P. 2000. A computer model to predict the surface temperature and time-of-wetness of concrete pavements and bridge decks. Rep. No. NISTIR 6551. Gaithersburg, MD: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Technology Administration, US Dept. of Commerce.
Brown, J. W., M. Pikarsky, and W. N. Carey,Jr. 1974. “Roadway design in seasonal frost areas 26.” National cooperative highway research program synthesis of highway pratice. Washington, DC: Transportation Research Board.
Burnett, R. A., and D. F. Dwyer. 1999. “Fighting frost problems in New York state pavements.” In Proc., 10th Int. Conf. on Cold Regions Engineering: Putting Research into Practice, 416–427. Reston, VA: ASCE.
Côté, J., and J.-M. Konrad. 2005. “Thermal conductivity of base-course materials.” Can. Geotech. J. 42 (1): 61–78. https://doi.org/10.1139/t04-081.
Doré, G., J. M. Konrad, M. Roy, and N. Rioux. 1995. “Use of alternative materials in pavement frost protection: Material characteristics and performance modeling.” Transp. Res. Board 1481: 63–74.
Finnish Meteorological Institute. 2021. “Weather and sea/download observations.” Accessed July 8, 2021. https://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/download-observations.
GEO-SLOPE International. 2014. Thermal modeling with TEMP/W. Calgary, AB: GEO-SLOPE International.
Gold, L. W. 1958. “Some observations on the dependence of strain on stress for ice.” Can. J. Phys. 36 (10): 1265–1275. https://doi.org/10.1139/p58-131.
Guymon, G. L., R. L. Berg, and T. V. Hromadka. 1993. Mathematical model of frost heave and thaw settlement in pavements. Rep. No. CRREL Report 93-2. Hanover, NH: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.
Haghi, N. T., S. Nassiri, M. H. Shafiee, and A. Bayat. 2015. “Using field data to evaluate bottom ash as pavement insulation layer.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2433 (1): 39–47. https://doi.org/10.3141/2433-05.
Hassn, A., A. Chiarelli, A. Dawson, and A. Garcia. 2016. “Thermal properties of asphalt pavements under dry and wet conditions.” Mater. Des. 91: 432–439. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2015.11.116.
Hickson, R. I., S. I. Barry, G. N. Mercer, and H. S. Sidhu. 2011. “Finite difference schemes for multilayer diffusion.” Math. Comput. Modell. 54 (1–2): 210–220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcm.2011.02.003.
Hohmann, M. 1997. “Soil freezing – the concept of soil water potential. State of the art.” Cold Reg. Sci. Technol. 25 (2): 101–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-232X(96)00019-5.
Ikonen, J., K. Rautiainen, J. Lemmetyinen, and J. Pulliainen. 2016. “The Sodankylä in situ soil moisture observation network: An example application of ESA CCI soil moisture product evaluation.” Geosci. Instrum. Methods Data Syst. 5 (1): 95–108. https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-5-95-2016.
Johnston, G. H. 1981. Permafrost engineering design and construction. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Khan, A., D. Mrawira, and E. E. Hildebrand. 2009. “Use of lightweight aggregate to mitigate frost damage in flexible pavements.” Int. J. Pavement Eng. 10 (5): 329–339. https://doi.org/10.1080/10298430802169473.
Konrad, J. M. 1992. “Analyse numérique des chaussées soumises à l’action du gel.” In Proc., Colloque Internal Géotechnique et Informatique, 253–260. Paris: Presses de l'École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.
Levenberg, E., and Q. F. Adam. 2021. “Construction of an electrically heated asphalt road based on ribbon technology.” Transp. Res. Rec. 2675 (9): 652–663. https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981211004175.
Nicolsky, D. J., V. E. Romanovsky, and G. G. Panteleev. 2009. “Estimation of soil thermal properties using in-situ temperature measurements in the active layer and permafrost.” Cold Reg. Sci. Technol. 55 (1): 120–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2008.03.003.
Øiseth, E., R. Aabøe, and I. Hoff. 2006. “Field test comparing frost insulation materials in road construction.” In Proc., 13th Int. Conf. on Cold Regions Engineering, 1–11. Reston, VA: ASCE.
Pylkkänen, K., H. Luomala, W. S. Guthrie, and A. Nurmikolu. 2012. “Real-time in situ monitoring of frost depth, seasonal frost heave, and moisture in railway track structures.” In Proc., Cold Regions Engineering 2012, 446–455. Reston, VA: ASCE.
Rodell, M., P. R. Houser, A. A. Berg, and J. S. Famiglietti. 2005. “Evaluation of 10 methods for initializing a land surface model.” J. Hydrometeorol. 6 (2): 146–155. https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM414.1.
Seppälä, M. 1990. “Depth of snow and frost on a Palsa Mire, Finnish Lapland.” Geogr. Ann. Ser. A Phys. Geogr. 72 (2): 191–201. https://doi.org/10.1080/04353676.1990.11880315.
Simonsen, E., and U. Isacsson. 1999. “Thaw weakening of pavement structures in cold regions.” Cold Reg. Sci. Technol. 29 (2): 135–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-232X(99)00020-8.
Taber, S. 1929. “Frost heaving.” J. Geol. 37 (5): 428–461. https://doi.org/10.1086/623637.
Zhang, M., X. Zhang, J. Lu, W. Pei, and C. Wang. 2019. “Analysis of volumetric unfrozen water contents in freezing soils.” Exp. Heat Transfer 32 (5): 426–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/08916152.2018.1535528.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 36 • Issue 4 • December 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 4, 2021
Accepted: Jun 23, 2022
Published online: Sep 12, 2022
Published in print: Dec 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Feb 12, 2023
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.