Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 32413250

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Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells

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Study of ice and snow melting process on conductive asphalt solar collector
Mingyu Chen, Shaopeng Wu n, Hong Wang, Jizhe Zhang
Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials Science and Engineering of the Ministry of Education, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, Peoples Republic of China

a r t i c l e i n f o abstract

Article history: This paper investigates the snow melting process on asphalt pavements as solar collector by
Received 11 February 2011 experiments and numerical simulation. A numerical simulation method was used to predict the
Received in revised form general design requirements for snow melting system of asphalt pavements, and a type of experimental
29 June 2011
asphalt snow melting system has been built using the design parameters obtained from the preceding
Accepted 11 July 2011
Available online 6 August 2011
simulation. Graphite powders were used to improve the thermal conductivity of asphalt concrete and
thus resulting in an improved efciency of asphalt collector. A laboratory snow melting test was
Keywords: performed after real snowstorm events. The effects of thermal conductive asphalt concrete (CAC) on
Asphalt solar collector snow melting performance and asphalt pavement temperature distribution were evaluated. The heat
Ice and snow melting
transfer in the asphalt slabs and the heat requirement for the snow melting were analyzed. The results
Melting performance
that are obtained show that asphalt solar collector (ASC) provides us a better alternative method for
Temperature distribution
snow melting. The higher uid temperature is a positive way to improve the performance of snow
melting system. However, it is unnecessary to keep a too high uid temperature so as to reduce the
waste of energy. The non-uniform temperatures in the asphalt slabs are noticeable. Furthermore, the
heat-transmission and the snow melting performance can be enhanced using CAC.
Crown Copyright & 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction vibration and improper use of the mechanical device lead to

It is a major societal problem to improve trafc safety in the late
fall, winter, and early spring, during periods of snow, sleet, and
freezing rain. Preventing snow accumulation and ice formation on
roads, especially on some critical sections including bridges and
ramps, is of high priority to improve winter transportation safety.
Asphalt concrete is widely used in parking lots, tarmacs, airport
runway, bridge deck, roadways, etc. Therefore, it is desirable that ice
and snow be removed effectively to keep asphalt pavement free.
The application of deicing agents is the conventional method
of preventing preferential icing. Materials like salt, sand, or other
such gritty material can be used to remove ice from pavement [1].
Salt is an inexpensive deicing agent and it is efcient in melting
snow and ice except when the surface temperature is lower than
0 1C. However, ice will not be melted by the most popularly used
salt (sodium chloride) if the temperature falls below  3.9 1C.
Furthermore, deicing chemicals have obvious negative impacts
including the concrete corrosion, and environmental pollution
and this problem has been paid much attention by International
Energy Agency (IEA) and World Health Organization (WHO) [2,3].
Another method of ice/snow removal is the use of mechanical
devices (e.g. snow plows), but these can damage the pavement
and can be associated with high maintenance costs. Machinery
n
Corresponding author. Tel./fax: 86 27 8716 2595.
E-mail address: wusp@whut.edu.cn (S. Wu).
surface and structural damage [4]. Again, it is clear that mechan-
ical device is used once the freezing condition is present. There-
fore, the safety concern is present before complete snow removal.
Moreover, severe environmental conditions may preclude the use
of the equipment.
To avoid these problems, using a heating system to melt snow and
prevent icing has been proposed in the past decades as an alternative
to spreading salt. Popular snow melting systems use electrically
heating wire buried in the pavement. On the other hand, hot water
piping systems heated by kerosene or gas boilers are also commonly
used for not only residential front yards but also big parking spaces
and precipitous roads. However, snow melting systems consume
much bigger amount of thermal energy than most people think due
to a large amount of heat loss to the ambient in addition heat is
required for melting snow. For example, in the application experi-
ences of West Virginia and Oregon, the electric energy consumption
for snow-melting covered from 500 to 750 W/m2 [5]. The amount of
oil consumption burned in winter season for 20 m2 wide residential
snow melting system in average in Hokkaido area is almost equiva-
lent to the annual oil consumption for domestic hot water supply of a
single family house [6].
From energy conversation and CO2 reduction as well as saving
running expense point of view, alternative ice melting methods
that permit cost savings, lower maintenance, and reduce road and
bridge damage should be considered. The hydronic heating based
on low temperature uid, such as geothermal tail water, solar

0927-0248/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright & 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2011.07.013
3242 M. Chen et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 32413250
energy, and industrial waste heat is a better alternative method
for snow melting. The rst application of Downhole Coaxial Heat
Exchanger (DCHE) system in snow-melting, and the rst geother-
mal snow melting system in Japan, known as the Gaia system,
has been in operation since 1995 [7].
The pairing of a Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) and
hydronic tubing embedded in the bridge deck was put together
by researchers at Oklahoma State University and is called the
smart bridge [8]. Several researches have been conducted to
investigate the engineered snow melting systems using labora-
tory measurements, and numerical simulations. However, these
studies only consider the application of snow melting system to
the cement concrete pavement [813].
Filed measurements demonstrate that the internal tempera-
ture of an asphalt pavement rise up to 6070 1C by solar irradia-
tion in summer because of its excellent heat-absorbing property
[14]. In asphalt solar collector (ASC), the uid is circulated
through a series of pipe circuits laid below pavement surface.
The irradiation from the sun and atmosphere is absorbed by the
pavement and then the uid through the pipes brings the solar
energy out and stored in the ground over summer time. Hence,
the energy is used for the heating of adjacent buildings as well as
to keep the pavement ice-free directly in winter [15]. Numerous
studies have been conducted on the amount of energy that can be
extracted, the amount of energy that is needed to keep an asphalt
road free of ice, and the effect of energy transfer on temperature
distribution along the depth of asphalt pavements [1419].
The ASC provides us a better alternative method for snow
melting because of such system generally has higher energy
efciency than boilers or electrical heaters. Furthermore, by
extracting heat in the summer and providing heat in the winter,
extreme temperature distribution uctuations in the asphalt
pavement are reduced, which increases the resistance against
rutting and frost cracking. However, the higher initial costs and
the lack of reliable design guidelines are hurdles for implementa-
tion of this technology. Reducing the initial cost of the ASC, which
is dominated by the installation cost of the hydronic piping and
heating equipment, relies on the emergence of low cost but good
performance pipe material, cost effective piping installation
technology, and high thermal efciency. One approach to make
the hydronic snow melting system economically feasible is to
reduce the life cycle cost of the system by optimizing the design.
2. Scope of work and objectives
The heat conduction of asphalt mixtures is one of the key
parameters related to the efciency of the asphalt collector. Thermal
conductive llers were used to make the asphalt mixtures conduc-
tive so that it can signicantly enhance the thermal efciency of the
asphalt collector [19]. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the
effects of thermal conductive performance of asphalt pavement on
the hydronic melting process. A numerical simulation method was
used to predict the general design requirements for snow melting
system of asphalt pavements. Especially, the effects of thermal
conductive, pipes distance, and pipe depth on the snow melting
performance will be considered using Finite Element Method.
As a type of solar collector, asphalt pavement has been
developed for the heating and cooling of adjacent buildings as
well as to keep the pavement ice-free directly. In our previous
work, conductive asphalt concrete (CAC) was prepared, and the
performance of the solar energy conversion was evaluated [15].
The present work will attempt to verify the feasibility of snow
melting using conductive asphalt solar collector (CASC). A type of
experimental hydronic snow melting system has been built using
the design parameters obtained from the preceding simulation.
Experiments for the evaluation of snow melting performance
using CASC are operated after real snowstorm events.
On the other hand, asphalt mixture is a typical temperature-
sensitive material. The hydronic heating for snow melting will lead
to the non-uniform temperature distribution along the horizontal
asphalt pavement direction. The modulus and strength of asphalt
concrete have good correlation with the temperature [20]. Mean-
while, the high temperatures side will be susceptible to permanent
deformation under repeated trafc loading, while the low tem-
peratures side will be susceptible to thermal cracking. For these
reasons, the research has been conducted to evaluate the effects of
the heat exchanger on pavement temperature distribution.
3. Thermal analyze
There are some challenges for achieving an optimal system
that can achieve desired snow-melting performance with mini-
mum life cycle costs. First, many design parameters are interacted
(i.e. heating capacity, pipe layout, and control strategy) and the
various combinations of the design parameters can lead to
signicant difference in the performance, and cost of the system.
Second, the weather conditions of snowstorms vary widely.
Therefore, computer simulation of system is the feasible way to
optimize a design using typical weather data.
3.1. Simulating methodology
A 2D nite element method was used to simulate the snow
melting behavior of the asphalt collector. Combined the actual
situation, the model is simulated and is based on the following
assumptions:
(1) Every layers of asphalt pavement, the base, the subbase, soil,
and the installed pipe are uniform completely, isotropic and
homogeneous.
(2) Snow melting was substituted by ice melting in the computa-
tion. When the temperature of the simulating ice exceeds
0 1C, it is thought that the ice has been melted. And the
evaporation of ice in melted process is not considered. Ice is
uniformed completely, isotropic and homogeneous.
(3) The contact between every layer is close, the temperature,
and heat ux between layers are continuous completely, and
heat resistance of the contact is not considered.
(4) The temperature uctuations are even along the embedded
pipes direction.
The convection and radiation boundaries are applied to the
surface of ice layer, and other edges are applied to the adiabatic
boundary. In the study, the temperature of the ice layer is  3 1C.
The 1 cm thickness of ice layer is selected because the ices
thickness may exceed 1 cm when heavy snow happens.
The embedded pipe with water can be regarded as the thermal
resource using melting ice layer. ASC is an efcient mean of
collecting a large amount of warmth to raise the temperature of a
thermal bank from the natural temperature of 10 1C up to over
25 1C [14]. The constant temperature 25 1C is selected to the
water. The asphalt concrete (AC) layer is modeled in ANSYS/ED
nite element suite, using PLANE55 elements with a 2-D thermal
conduction capability. The element is dened by four nodes with
a degree of freedom at each node: temperature. Detailed numer-
ical model can be seen in the literature [21]. Tables 1 and 2 list the
related parameters of ASC and ice layer. Different depth of
embedded pipe may cause different effect of melting ice. The
4 cm top layer, the 6 cm middle layer, and the 8 cm bottom layer
are generally used in China for asphalt pavement construction.
 M. Chen et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 32413250 3243

Table 1
The related parameters of ASC.

Thickness Thermal conductivity, W/m 1C Specic heat capacity, Density,

(mm) (J/kg 1C) (kg/m3)
AC CAC

Top layer 40 1.3 2.0, 3.0, 5.0 920 2600

Middle layer 60 1.3 2.0, 3.0, 5.0 920 2600
Bottom layer 80 1.3 2.0, 3.0, 5.0 920 2600
Base 200 1.5 1050 2500
Subbase 400 1.5 1050 2500
Soil Innite 1.5 1050 2500

Pipe
Inner diameter 10 0.5 2303 1400
Outer diameter 15
Water 0.6 4183 1000

Table 2 Table 3
The related parameters of ice layer. Different melting ice area to different depth of embedded pipes.

Thickness Temperature Thermal Density Enthalpy Melting time/the depth Thermal conductivity (W/m 1C)
(mm) (1C) conductivity, kg/m3  107 of installed pipe
(W/m 1C) (J/m3) 1.3 (AC) 2.0 (CAC) 3.0 (CAC) 4.0 (CAC) 5.0 (CAC)

Ice 7200 s
10  10 0.6 1000 0 14 cm 0 0 0 0 0
1 0.6 1000 3.78 10 cm 0 0.05 0.12 0.15 0.18
0 0.6 1000 7.98 7 cm 0.1 0.15 0.18 0.21 0.24
10 0.6 1000 12.2 4 cm 0.15 0.18 0.20 0.22 0.24

3600 s
14 cm 0 0 0 0 0
10800 10 cm 0 0 0 0 0
z = 14cm z = 10cm 7 cm 0 o 0.01 0.01 0.05 0.07
Beginning melting-ice time (s)

9600
z = 7cm z = 4cm 4 cm 0.07 0.09 0.11 0.12 0.13
8400 Trend line
7200 t = 10370.0k0.445
the CAC, the melting-snow effect is very wonderful, and the
6000
t= 7696.8k0.589 melting-snow time is within 0.5 h when the pipes are embedded
4800 in the middle layer or between the middle and top layers. 1 h can
3600 satisfy the melting-snow request when the pipes are between the
t = 4089.9k0.590 bottom and middle layers, which are the thermal conductive
2400
concrete. When the thermal conductivity achieves 3.0 the melt-
1200 ing-snow time can be controlled within 0.5 h. Especially, the
t = 1382.7k0.594
0 relation between the beginning melting-snow time and the ther-
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 mal conductivity can be described by power exponent equation.
Thermal conductivity(W/ (mC)
3.3. Melting ice area
Fig. 1. Relation between the beginning melting-snow time and the thermal
conductivity (z: the depth of installed pipe).
The melting ice area is nite to a pipe wherever the pipes are
embedded. Table 3 gives the different melting ice area to different
The thickness of asphalt pavement with three structure layers depth of embedded pipes. The bigger the thermal conductivity of
was controlled to 18 cm. The depths of 4, 7, 10, and 14 cm were asphalt pavement is, the more the melting-ice area is. However, the
alternatives to embed a pipe. effect of melting snow is no long obvious in the same depth of the
embedded when the thermal conductivity is large to a certain extent.
3.2. Thermal conductivity and pipe depth In order to construct conveniently, it is the best that the pipes
are embedded between asphalt pavements layers. Combined to
Fig. 1 gives the relation between the thermal conductivity of the melting-snow time, the pipes cannot be installed in the
asphalt layers and beginning time of melting ice. The result shows bottom and when the thermal conductivity of asphalt pavement
that at the same depth of the embedded pipe, larger the thermal is more than 3.0 W/m 1C, the depth of the embedded pipe is
conductivity of asphalt pavement, lesser the beginning time of advised as 4 or 10 cm. To facilitate the installation of the pipes,
melting ice. At the same thermal conductivity of asphalt pave- and reduce the cost the distance between pipes should be
ment, deeper the pipes are embedded, the more beginning time of controlled in the range from 0.18 to 0.4 m.
melting ice acquires.
Fig. 1 shows that the beginning melting-snow time was too long 3.4. Temperature distribution
and exceeded 0.5 h when the pipes are embedded in the bottom
asphalt layer even though the thermal conductivity is improved Fig. 2 gives the temperature distribution at certain time to the
5.0 W/m 1C. Whether the layers are the original asphalt concrete or original asphalt pavement (Thermal conductivity, 1.3 W/m 1C)
3244 M. Chen et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 32413250
20min
AC
60min
AC
100min
AC
Temperature
-2.075
-0.474
1.126
2.726
4.327
5.927
7.528
9.128
10.728
Fig. 2. Temperature distributions at certain time to the asphalt pavement.
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of the asphalt snow melting system.
and the thermal conductive asphalt pavement (Thermal conduc-
tivity, 3.0 W/m 1C), respectively, when the pipe is embedded
between the top and middle layers. It can be clearly seen that
the temperature distribution on pavement is non-uniform. The
temperature is variational gradually along the pipe diameter. This
could lead to irregular deformations (the high temperatures side
will be susceptible to permanent deformation under repeated
trafc loading, while the low temperatures side will be suscep-
tible to thermal cracking).
The area near the pipe is melted because the temperature of
asphalt pavement around the pipe is higher. After a period of
time, the temperature of the asphalt pavement far from the pipe
begin increasing, hence the ice of road began melted fully.
Especially, the melting ice speed in initial stages is very rapid,
and gradually the speed becomes slow. The thermal conductive
area is large, and on the contrary the thermal conductive
resistance is little in initial stages. Therefore, initially the ratio
of liquid phase was increasing rapidly. With the increasing of
water from melting ice the thermal resistance became increasing
continuously. Finally, the speed of melting ice decreased.
4. Experimental works
4.1. Experimental setup
A general view of the experimental setup is shown in Fig. 3.
The mechanism of the hydronic snow melting system in present
40min 20min 40min
AC CAC CAC
80min 60min 80min
AC CAC CAC
120min 100min 120min
AC CAC CAC
12.329
Temperature
-0.950
1.144
3.238
5.333
7.427
9.521
11.615
13.709
15.803
17.897
work is similar with ASC established before [15]. The difference is
that the asphalt slabs are larger in present work. The slabs with
copper pipes as well as thermal sensors locations are shown in
Fig. 4. The pipe spacing is selected 300 mm and is buried 40 mm
deep based on the general design requirements from earlier
numerical simulation. Nominal pipe diameters are 20 mm and
the inside diameters are 15 mm. A metering pump impels water
through the pipes, whose ow rate range is 0  60 L/h in 0.6 MPa.
Besides, a 15 mm thick foamed polystyrene plate (thermal con-
ductivity 0.038 W/m 1C) is xed on the outer surface of those
pipes to reduce heat loss.
4.2. Materials and gradation
The asphalt pavement is prepared with a hot mixture of
asphalt, coarse aggregate, ne aggregate, and mineral ller. In
order to simulate the actual structure of the asphalt pavements,
the slab is composed of two structure layers in the vertical
directioneach hot mixture asphalt (HMA) layer approximated
to a thickness of 5 cm. The surface asphalt concrete course was
obtained with a gradation of AC-13 (asphalt concrete), while base
course in the slab was made from a gradation of AC-25. Table 4
presents the selected mix gradation.
Graphite is the primary conductive ller for asphalt mixtures.
Microcrystal graphite powders were selected as thermal conduc-
tive llers due to their low cost, and abundance, excellent thermal
properties, and compatibility with asphalt. Graphite powders
have a particle size of 150 mm, carbon content of 98.9%, and
thermal conductivity of 6872 W/m 1C. Graphite was employed
to prepare CAC through replace part of mineral llers. Design and
preparation of CAC is shown in the Ref. [22]. The CAC has the
same gradation of normal AC besides containing conductive
graphite powder. The thermal properties of CAC measured by
Transient Plane Source (TPS) method is shown in Fig. 5 [23].
Graphite content of 18% by volume of asphalt binder in CAC was
considered an appropriate proportion to meet the requirements
for mechanical properties [23]. All the materials of the concretes
followed by the corresponding design code, while the air voids,
and other volumetric properties of the test specimens matched
with the design requisition.
 M. Chen et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 32413250 3245

Fig. 4. The schematic of pipes and measuring point in tested slab.

Table 4
Selected mix gradation.

Type Sieves (mm) 31.5 26.5 19 16 13.2 9.5 4.75 2.36 1.18 0.6 0.3 0.15 0.075
AC-13 Passing (%) 100 100 100 100 95.5 78.3 47.8 33.6 24.4 19.1 12.7 9.0 6.9
AC-25 Passing (%) 100 97.5 84.8 74.4 63.5 49.3 33.8 23.9 16.8 11.4 8.0 6.1 4.9

2.5 1000 entering uid temperature provided by ground coupled heat

Thermal Conductivity (W/(mC))

pump system (GCHP) is about 54 1C, and the tail water tempera-
Heat Capacity(J/(KgC))

2 940 ture of over 75% of the geothermal heating wells in China is

1.5
1 820
Thermal conductivity
Heat Capacity
0.5
0 700
0 12% 18% 22%
Graphite Content (%)
Fig. 5. Thermal properties of asphalt concrete with various contents of conductive
llers.
4.3. CAC slabs preparation
The whole process of preparation of asphalt concrete slabs is
shown in Fig. 6. The slab was composed of two structure layers in
the vertical direction. The hot mix asphalt (HMA) layers were
prepared by roller compactor in three stages. The bottom layers of
the asphalt slabs were rstly compacted by a roller compactor.
A snake-shaped pipe was embedded above the bottom layer. After
that, a loose mixture was placed on the top of the bottom layer.
The snake-shaped pipe is embedded in asphalt slabs with a
serpentine conguration as shown in Fig. 4.
4.4. Test method
Experiments for the validation of snow melting function using
ASC are operated after real snowstorm events on 16 November
2009 and 5 January 2010. The ambient temperature on the whole
process of testing remained below zero. The entering water
temperature of about 25 1C is considered as the minimum
possible temperature obtained by ASC. The maximum possible
higher than 40 1C [12,24]. In present work, heating uids
(approximately 25 and 50 1C) were used to evaluate snow melting
880
performance during different snowfall conditions.
In designing and evaluating snow melting performance, it is
mainly involved in conrming the surface temperature and its
conditions. A type of high precision thermal resistor (Pt100) was
760 inserted at 11 different locations in the line perpendicular to the
pipes to record the temperature data over successive periods of
heating cycles. Sensor locations are shown in Fig. 4. Every sensor
22%+0.2% was connected to a Keithley2700 data acquisition system. Surface
fibers conditions are often considered in design calculations in terms of
the fraction of the surface, which is clear of snow. This is
commonly denoted snow free area ratio or Ar [25]. Hence, a
snow free condition is indicated by a snow free area ratio of one,
and a snow-covered surface as a value of zero. Patches of snow
between pipe locations (striping) correspond to intermediate
values. The experimental Ar values were estimated visually by
examining images of the slabs surface taken during the snow
event by a digital video system. The surface temperature is not
only of direct related to surface conditions, but is also of interest if
one is concerned with its control systems. It is difcult to measure
the surface temperature directly. An Infrared Imaging Technology
(IIT) was applied to assess surface characterization.
5. Result and discussion
5.1. Snow melting performance
Table 5 lists some typical test parameters, and experimental
results of snow melting in present work. Fig. 7 shows some of the
digital images of the asphalt slab surface during the snow melting
process. As shown in the gure, the melting process in the
horizontal pavement direction does not proceed simultaneously
due to the non-uniform temperature distribution and snake-
shaped appear along the pipes. The snow melting performance
3246 M. Chen et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 32413250

Fig. 6. The preparation process of asphalt concrete slabs. (a) Mold with thermal sensors, (b) Coat with foam asphalt, (c) Fixing pipes and sensors, (d) Packing of mixture,
(e) Compaction and (f) Completed slabs.

Table 5
Test parameters and typical experimental results of snow melting.

Snow event (time) 16 November 2009 5 January 2010

Type of asphalt concrete AC CAC AC CAC

Heating uid temperature (1C) 25 50
Initial thickness (mm) 38 122
Ambient temperature (1C)  1.6 to  0.9  3.2  1.4
Starting time for melting 02:00 a.m., 17 November 04:22 a.m., 6 January
Melting time (min) 382 243 309 217

Fig. 7. Images of surface condition during the snow melting process.

 M. Chen et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 32413250
may be indicated by the entire snowmelt time. Compared with
the AC slabs, the melting time of CAC slabs were obviously
decreased. The time of snow melting decreases about 30% with
the thermal conductivity of asphalt concrete increases from 1.531
to 2.309 W/m 1C It reects that the CAC can accelerate the heat-
transmission from heat source to slabs surface.
The variation of snow free area ratio during the melting period
is shown in Fig. 8. Considering the possible error during treat-
ment, the error bars of 75% are shown in the measured snow
area ratio (Ar). The results indicate that the measured Ar increases
with heating until snow clearance is achieved, and the Ar
increases steeply with applied heating uid at higher temperature
(50 1C). Under the same test conditions, the Ar of CA and CAC have
the similar increasing tendency besides that the time period
when Ar 0 during the melting process are different.
The melting process can be divided into three phases: the
starting period, linear period, and accelerated period. During the
staring period, although no snow free areas (striping) are
detected, melting starts from the lower surface of the snow layer.
The heating ux from the melting pipes is dominant, and the
melting process proceeds slowly due to the initially low
temperature in asphalt slab, and a great deal of porosity in
natural snow. In the linear period, the movement of melted liquid
water ll the pores of the snow becomes relatively frequent,
which is helpful to enhance the heat and mass transfer between
the ice/snow layer and the asphalt pavement. The main driving
force of melted liquid ow in pores of the snow is the capillary
effect [12]. In addition, the curve of Ar has an approximately linear
variation with melting time. The variation of ambient tempera-
ture, and the movement of melted liquid water may be the main
cause of the uctuations in curve.
1.2
AC-25C CAC-25C AC-50C
1.0
0.8
Snow Free Area Ratio
0.6
0.4 Start Start
heating heating
0.2 B heated for approximately 200 min. There are noticeable differ-
0.0
0 A 100 200
-0.2
0 100 200 300 400
Time (min)
Fig. 8. Variation of surface condition on slabs during the snow melting period.
Fig. 9. 2-Dimensional temperature distributions of the asphalt slab surface was obtained from ITG.
3247
The thickness of snow was reduced in the past two periods.
The ice and snow will be surrounded by excess liquid water along
the snow melting, besides that melted water ows away from the
pavement. When the pores are completely lled with melted
water, the heat, and mass transfer between the ice and snow with
saturated pores and the ambient becomes dominant. As the
structure of the pores in ice and snow is destroyed frequently
and free melted water is released rapidly, the melting process
entering the accelerated period. Although the entire snowmelt
time is longer than expected, but it is feasible that low tempera-
ture water about 25 1C heated by asphalt pavement is used for
melting ice, and snow. Compared to the former testing using
heating uid at 25 1C, the melting time of the testing with a 50 1C
heating uid were lower, especially the thickness of snow has
been increased three times against the former and the ambient
temperature was lower. It indicates that higher uid temperature
is a positive way to improve the performance of melting system.
However, it is unnecessary to keep a too high uid temperature
during practical design, and applications.
5.2. Temperature response in asphalt slab
5.2.1. Surface temperature
The surface temperature is directly related to surface conditions
indicated by snow free area ratio. Fig. 9 shows 2-dimensional
temperature distributions of the asphalt slab surface, which was
obtained from infrared thermograms (ITG). These photos present
several worth noting items when using heating uid at a tempera-
ture of 25 1C. It is clear to distinguish the shape of the snow
melting area using different color. The surface temperature of the
snake-shaped area of snow melting was increased to the average of
35 1C after 3 h and 13 min of heating. The second photo was
taken after the snow melted completely. It illustrates that the
temperature distribution became uniform, and remained at about
CAC-50C 5 1C. Therefore, it would be an effective method that the asphalt
slab surface is controlled at the temperature 35 1C by hydronic
snow melting system to prevent freezing of the slab.
The heating uid at a temperature of 50 1C was used to
evaluate the effect of CAC on the slab surface conditions. The
initial snow thickness is 122 mm, and the dynamic process of
C
surface temperature was recorded by infrared images. The rst
spots appear on the CAC slabs surface where the temperature is
above 0 1C after heating of 72 min. Fig. 10 shows temperature
A Starting period
B Linear period distribution of the slabs surface after the two types of slabs were
C Accelerated period
ences between the slabs surface of CAC and AC illustrated by the
brightness of various color or the integrity of snake-shaped.
300 400 Identically, the higher temperature on the CAC slab surface
reects that the application of CAC can accelerate the heat-
500 600 transmission in asphalt pavement, which enhances the energy
efciency of solar collection and snow melting. It is possible to see
a chaos of temperature distribution in the right side of each image
due to melted water ow away from the slabs.
3248 M. Chen et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 32413250

Fig. 10. Effect of CAC on the temperature distribution of the slabs surface.

14 40

12 AC-25C AC-50C 2009-11-17 8:25

30
10 CAC-25C CAC-50C 24.37 22.86 22.54
23.60 23.12 22.27
Temperature (C)

Temperature /C
8 20
Snow thickness = 122mm
6
10
4

2 T1:5.0 T2:4.85 T3:4.71 T4:4.53 T5: 4.38

0
Snow thickness = 38mm
0
-10
-2
0 30 60 90 120 150 180
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
L /cm
Time (min)
Fig. 12. A typical example of internal temperature distribution at end of heating
Fig. 11. Variation of temperature over a period of snow melting at the location (L: the distance from the short side of slab to the point of sensors).
of T1.

Table 6
5.2.2. Internal temperature The maximum and minimum temperature gradients at the end of snow melting.
Based on the results obtained so far, we can conclude that the
Snow event (time) 16 November 5 January
maximum surface temperature occurs directly above the pipes 2009 2010
location while the minimum surface temperature appears at the
location midway between the pipes. Compared with ice melting Type of asphalt concrete AC CAC AC CAC
process, the snow melting process is more complex owing to Heating uid temperature (1C) 25 50
Maximum temperature gradient (1C/15 cm) 19.30 18.2 36.82 38.63
specic conditions including: the random snow porosity, change- Minimum temperature gradient (1C/15 cm) 17.89 16.22 32.81 32.89
able weather parameters, and the coexistence of different heat
and mass transfer patterns. The melted water that ow in only
one direction could interfere with the variation of slab internal be validated from the graph that the highest temperature occurs
temperatures. Therefore, the variation of the temperature at the around the pipeline location nearest to heat source. As expected,
location of T1 (as shown in Fig. 4.) can reect the actual condition transverse temperature gradient exists in the asphalt concrete,
of snow melting process. Fig. 11 illustrates measured tempera- which is shown in the uctuation of curves. Although the real
tures during over a period of snow melting at the location of T1. variation of the temperatures from the point around the pipeline
Regardless of the difference in uid temperatures, the type of to exactly midway between the pipelines cannot be linear as
asphalt concrete or snow thickness, the internal temperature shown in gure, the temperature gradient would be approxi-
variation show similar trend and this process may be divided by mately described as the temperature differences between these
temperature change rate into four stages: the starting period, two locations. The maximum and minimum temperature gradi-
accelerated period, stable period, and post-acceleration. The ents at the end of snow melting are given in Table 6. It should be
temperature changes are of interest in stable period when most attached importance that the temperature gradients excess
of the heat energy was transferred to slab surface for melting 16 1C/15 cm, and higher temperature gradient would come out
snow. Furthermore, the temperature of the CAC slabs is higher if the heating uid with higher temperature was used.
than the AC slabs during the whole snow melting process and the The temperature gradient will decrease under the heat retained
changes of temperature between the CAC and AC slabs were in the asphalt slab continued to diffuse after the complete snow
quantitatively shown in Fig. 11. melting.
Considering the coupled thermalmechanical stress caused by
the temperature gradient and vehicular load in asphalt layer, 5.3. Energy consumption
some special structural calculation should be taken, especially the
temperature gradient in asphalt layer. The non-uniform tempera- Heating of pavement is an energy balance between the uid
ture distribution was investigated quantitatively using embedded and asphalt concrete, which is transferred through the pipes.
thermal sensors and a typical example of internal temperature The heat requirement for the snow melting process has been
distribution at the end of snow melting is shown in Fig. 12. It can determined by the integration of multiple heat transfer process,
 M. Chen et al. / Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells 95 (2011) 32413250
14
IWT
12
Snow event: 5 Jan, 2010
Delta T (C)
Snow thickness: 122mm
10
Ambient temperature: -2.5~-1C
Wind speed: 1.1~1.9m/s
8 CAC
6 20
AC
4
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Time (min)
Fig. 13. The temperature difference between inlet and outlet water measured
in 5 January 2010.
phase change, and the increment of internal energy. The thermal
process involved in the snow melting includes the forced convec-
tion between uid and the pipe wall, the conduction heat transfer
between the pipeline location and the pavement surface, the
convective heat transfer between the pavement surface and the
ambient, the heating for snow melting, melted water temperature
rising, and water evaporation. In the testing and analysis, the
temperature difference between incoming and outgoing water
(DT) plays a key role in working as an indicator of the heat
requirement or the energy consumption of snow melting. Fig. 13
presents a typical temperature difference between incoming and
outgoing water temperature (DT) measured on 5 January 2010.
The circulating water (the incoming temperature) is steady at
50 71.5 1C.
The results show that the temperature difference decreases with
the process of snow melting in the both slabs. Compared with AC
slab, the CAC slab had a signicantly higher temperature difference
and the DT was increased to approximately 1.89 1C when snow was
cleared completely. Based on energy conservation law, the total
thermal energy supplied to slab has been calculated by simple
integral method. The power input to the slab for snow-melting is
475.5 W/m2 in the CAC slab, while 409.1 W/m2 in AC slab. Compar-
ison of heating energy consumption between AC and CAC slabs, the
heat and mass transfer between snow and the slab is much
enhanced as the CAC was used. This enhance corresponds to a
decrease in the melting time. Besides, this also occurs in the 38 mm
thickness case due to the power input is 305.0 W/m2 in CAC slab,
and 367.9 W/m2 in AC slab.
6. Conclusion
A numerical simulation method described in this paper can be
used to predict the general design requirements for snow melting
system of asphalt pavements. Based on the results obtained from
simulation and taking all factors into consideration, it is the best
that the pipes are embedded between asphalt pavement layers.
The proper depth of the embedded pipe is advised as 4 or 10 cm
and the distance between pipes should be controlled in the range
from 0.18 to 0.4 m.
A type of experimental asphalt snow melting system has been
built using the design parameters obtained from the preceding
simulation, which has the same mechanism with the asphalt solar
collector. Despite the entire snowmelt time is longer than
expected and higher uid temperature is a positive way to
improve the performance of melting system, it is acceptable for
us to use asphalt solar collector for snow melting. Especially, it is
feasible that low temperature water about 25 1C is used for snow
3249
60 melting. During practical design and applications, to utilize low
temperature water is of signicance to reduce the waste of energy
Inlet water temperature(C)
50 and it is unnecessary to keep high uid temperature.
The performance on the process of snow melting has been
recorded by digital images. The melting process of ice and snow
40
generally includes three phases: the starting period, the linear
period, and the accelerated period. The time of snow melting
30 decreases about 30% with the thermal conductivity of asphalt
concrete increases from 1.531 to 2.309 W/m 1C. The internal
temperature variation would be divided by temperature change
rate into four stages: the starting period, accelerated period, stable
10 period, and post-acceleration period. The non-uniform tempera-
350 ture distribution, and uctuations in asphalt pavement have been
determined. It should be attached importance that the temperature
gradients excess 16 1C/15 cm at the end of heating and higher
temperature gradients would come out if the heating uid with
higher temperature was used. The application of CAC can accel-
erate the heat-transmission in asphalt pavement, which enhances
the energy efciency of solar collection and snow melting.
Acknowledgments
This work was partially funded by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China no. 50878171.
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