Numerical simulation of low temperature on plastic runway of cement base

Abstract

Surface polyurethane materials in sports venues, which have good elasticity, high strength, excellent wear resistance and fine damping capacity, easily crack in winter. These cracks will affect their service performance for applications in sports. In this study, the temperature and stress distribution in cement concrete base layers in sports venues was investigated. A transient, two-dimensional finite-element model was built to predict the transient temperature distributions at various depths in a plastic runway of cement concrete base using the Ansys software. The results show that the temperature change almost occurs in the surface polyurethane layer. The low thermal conductivity of the polyurethane layer will be helpful for temperature distribution across the layer in winter. It should be realized to control or decrease the crack’s appearance in the plastic runway. Ultimately, the model is aimed at providing runway engineers with an efficient computational tool that attempts to increase the prediction accuracy of temperature in plastic runways of cement concrete base layer in cold regions for more reliable runway design.