Journal of Cold Regions Engineering

Snow, ice, and slush runway conditions significantly impact aircraft landing and takeoff safety. Although airport operators do an excellent job in maintaining runway safety during winter conditions, snow removal is costly and significantly impacts aircraft scheduling. This article presents using an alternative approach for snow removal with solar energy coupled with conductive concrete to develop an anti-icing airfield runway. By maintaining the runway slab surface at an above-freezing temperature, snow and ice accumulation are prevented. An anti-ice runway slab was developed during this Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) study at the University of Arkansas Engineering Research Center by supplying direct current (DC) energy from a photovoltaic energy system to a conductive concrete pavement overlay. The conductive concrete mix used for the overlay was developed during this study and is presented in this article. Experiments were conducted by supplying energy to test panels and investigating surface temperature changes. The article identifies the difficulties in developing an anti-icing system that incorporates solar energy and conductive concrete.

Snow avalanche hazard is one of the most critical aspects in the urbanization of mountainous areas. The risk from these natural phenomena can be reduced if proper countermeasures for reducing the danger or preventing avalanche triggering are taken. For instance, in the avalanche initiation zone, devices able to withstand snowpack gliding and prevent crack propagation can be installed. These can be classified as rigid (snow bridges) or flexible (snow net) structures, depending on the mechanisms involved under snow loading. In recent years, a new kind of structure called a snow umbrella, based on a net panel supported by rigid beams, has been designed and installed in the northwestern Italian Alps. As the real behavior of these structures is far from being simple to understand because of the complex interaction with snowpack movements, an umbrella was instrumented and monitored during the winter season of 2010–2011. The recorded data are used for testing two possible pressure distributions and evaluating the magnitude of the forces acting on the structure. Furthermore, a back-analysis allows validation of the assumptions taken during the design of the devices. The results are compared with commonly used guidelines, and further suggestions are proposed.

Monitoring the soil freeze-thaw process is of great importance to engineering design of infrastructure, observation of hydrology, variation of climate, and existence of vegetation in cold regions. This paper presents experimental results to describe the soil freeze-thaw process using piezoceramic-based smart aggregate (SA) transducers. Two SAs are embedded in predetermined locations: one is used as the actuator and the other is used as a sensor. The active-sensing method is applied to excite a stress wave propagating between the two SAs. The alteration of the mechanical properties of the soil during the freeze-thaw process has an important effect on the stress-wave propagation, and the transition between the freeze and thaw states of the soil is monitored in real time. A wavelet packet-based soil freeze-thaw status indicator is established to quantitatively describe the soil status during the freeze-thaw process. Potentially, this freeze-thaw status indicator can be linked to soil mechanical properties, and therefore the methodology presented here can be used to characterize a partially frozen soil or warm permafrost site.