Snow-melting performance of the thermally conductive concrete pavement – experimental evaluation in field application

Abstract

This paper evaluated the snow-melting performance of thermally conductive concrete incorporating silicon carbide (SiC) and copper powder (CP) in the field experiment. Before conducting the in-situ test, a mock-up test was previously performed. In the investigated properties of the mock-up test, the thermal conductivity test, normal concrete was 1.71 W/mK, the concrete with SiC 50% and CP 10% was 6.82 W/mK, and the concrete with SiC 100% and CP 10% was 9.22 W/mK. In addition, the ice layer melting test followed the thermal conductivity results as expected. The possibility of the snow-melting performance improvement was found in the mock-up test, therefore, the in-situ test was conducted. In the in-situ experiment, the thermal conductivity result of normal concrete (OPC-F) was 1.62 W/mK and the thermally conductive concrete (TC-F) was 3.23 W/mK. In addition, the compressive strength of OPC-F was 41 MPa and TC-F was 45 MPa. This phenomenon is related to the filler effect of SiC and CP according to the existing studies, it could be found in the field test as well. The key point was the snow-melting performance of TC-F, TC-F showed faster melting speed than OPC-F the 2 h after the starting time of the snow-melting test. Consequently, substituting a portion of aggregate with SiC and adding CP significantly enhances thermal transfer performance and snow-melting efficiency in cement composites. This study highlighted the importance of high thermal conductivity materials for cold-region road pavements and demonstrated practical application potential.