Assessment of the Mechanical Properties of Carbon-Fiber Heating Cables in Snow and Ice Melting Applications

The use of carbon-fiber heating cables(CFHC)to achieve effective melting of snow and ice deposited on roads is a method used worldwide.In this study,tensile and compressive tests have been conducted to analyze the mechan-ical properties of the CFHC and assess whether the maximum tensile and compressive strengths can meet the pavement design specifications.In order to study the aging produced by multiple cycles of heating and cooling,in particular,the CFHC was repeatedly heated in a cold chamber with an ambient temperature ranging between-20℃ and+40℃.Moreover,to evaluate how the strength of the pavement is affected by its presence,the CFHC was embedded at different depths and concrete blocks with different curing ages were subjected to relevant com-pression and splitting tensile tests.Numerical simulations based on the ANSYS software have also been performed and compared with the outcomes of the static loading tests.The results show that the CFHC embedded in the concrete does not affect the compressive splitting tensile strengths of the pavement.Overall,the CFHC meets the conditions required for continued use in road ice melting applications.

Review of ice-pavement adhesion study and development of hydrophobic surface in pavement deicing

Ice adhesion to materials is a significant concern in many fields. Hydrophobic surface has been used for anti-icing in fields of aircraft or transmission line, which prove to be efficacious and economical. However, such technique is seldom employed for road deicing, because of the texture and service environment of pavement. Instead, deicers such as rock salt are frequently used, which leads to serious corrosion problem of roads and bridges. In this paper, a number of studies that characterize mechanism of ice adhesion to common substrates, specifically to pavement, are reviewed. The most important researches undertaken on ice adhesion strength affecting factors are presented. An overview of studies carried out to find hydrophobie surface for asphalt and cement concrete pavement antiicing are presented. It was verified that the hydrophobicity had high correlation with icephobicity, and nano-engineered asphalt and cement concrete pavement surface exhibited favorable hydrophobicity, and also had good performance on weakening pavement-ice bonding. However, most ice-repelling pavements obtain hydrophobic surface via low surface energy coating, which could not exist on pavement for a long time under wheel abrasion. And the nano/micro structures on hydrophobic surfaces are also vulnerable and consumable. Thus, the long-term effect of hydrophobic surface still need to be improved, and durability of the hydrophobic surface should be the research and development priorities of ice-repelling pavement.