Experimental investigation of inclination angle on the snow melting process of heated pavement

Abstract

Heated pavements can be an effective method melt snow and ice on location where traditional snow plowing device is not practical or feasible. However, the energy use during operation limits the application of the technology. Desired innovations to further optimize the operational energy use may be stimulated by a sound understanding of the magnitude of the involved heat fluxes. In this study estimated these heat fluxes in a laboratory set-up and placed in a large walk-in cold room. Snow was melted on a heated asphalt concrete specimen at an air temperature of −5 °C. The inclination angle of the specimen was varied between 0°, 2° and 4° to vary the run-off of meltwater. The melting time, drying time, run-off and energy consumption was recorded and the different heat fluxes were quantified. It was found that the snow melting time did not vary much between the different inclination angles. However, increased the inclination angle from 0° to 2° and 4° reduced the drying time decreased by 30% and 47%, respectively. In resulting total energy use was reduced by 34% and 49%, respectively. The energy reduction was mainly contributed by using less energy for evaporation of meltwater, which was at 0° the dominating heat flux. Although the relative contributions of the heat fluxes can vary between our study and different real-life snow melting systems, this laboratory study illustrates the importance of effective run-off to maximize the efficiency of heated pavements. Several innovative approaches to minimize the evaporative heat losses are discussed.