Protecting Asphalt Pavements against Frost Action with an Electrical Heating System:Numerical Investigation

This paper is concerned with electrically heated asphalt pavements; it numerically explores the possibility of such technology to actively suppress frost penetration under seasonal cold-weather conditions. A thermal model is outlined for the investigation based on the one-dimensional heat equation i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Main Authors: Félix Adam, Quentin, Levenberg, Eyal, Ingeman-Nielsen, Thomas
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/d14d239e-6414-4200-a7ee-7233e1719b7c
https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CR.1943-5495.0000289
https://backend.orbit.dtu.dk/ws/files/352475552/Protecting_Asphalt_Pavements_against_Frost_Action_with_an_Electrical_Heating_System_-_Numerical_Investigation.pdf
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Summary:This paper is concerned with electrically heated asphalt pavements; it numerically explores the possibility of such technology to actively suppress frost penetration under seasonal cold-weather conditions. A thermal model is outlined for the investigation based on the one-dimensional heat equation including latent heat effects. This model is applied to a multilayer medium containing a buried heat source representing the heating system. Utilizing cold-climate weather data from northern Finland, calculations were performed to track the evolution of the frost front depth in an idealized pavement structure with no heating. Then the model calculations were repeated with the heating activated. A parametric study was performed with different heat production intensities and several embedment depths for the heating system. It is numerically demonstrated that embedded electrical heating can suppress frost penetration depth and duration in asphalt pavements, rendering the explored application practically feasible.