Coal-derived conductive pavement for winter de-icing: prototype, modeling, and simulation
Existing pavement de-icing methods result in high installation and maintenance costs, traffic delays, excessive weariness and corrosion, and negative environmental and safety impacts. To overcome these challenges, this paper presents an innovative pathway to designing and constructing smart self-heating pavements using a low-cost coal-char bearing asphalt material. The conductive asphalt incorporates coal char, i.e., a key byproduct of the coal pyrolysis process, into the Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) mixture. This asphalt containing coal-derived solid carbon exhibits highly tailorable electrical conductivity, satisfactory mechanical and thermophysical properties, and superior cost-efficiency as compared to other conductive pavement materials. The de-icing performance was also demonstrated by laboratory experiments on a bench-scale prototype. Furthermore, an efficient thermal network model was developed and validated by experiments to investigate the transient thermal behavior and energy performance of the Ohmic heating pavement system. Furthermore, the whole-year energy simulation case studies were conducted on a bridge pavement with an annual energy use of 24.6–1444.8 kWh/m2, showcasing its potential in field applications across cool humid, cold humid, and subarctic/arctic climate zones.
- Research Organization:
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FE0031983
- OSTI ID:
- 2563075
- Journal Information:
- Applied Thermal Engineering, Journal Name: Applied Thermal Engineering Vol. 249; ISSN 1359-4311
- Publisher:
- ElsevierCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Utilizing coal-derived solid carbon materials towards next-generation smart and multifunction pavements
Life-cycle cost-benefit analysis of a novel self-heating pavement made from coal-derived solid carbon