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.
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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.
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© 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
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