Experimental research of snow-melting rate and dynamic characteristic of snow-melting process on heated pavement surfaces

During the cold winter, there are unfavorable factors such as a large amount of snow and long-term ice on the road, which seriously affect the traffic and transport as well as the economy development in the northwest region. Therefore, it has become a research focus of road engineering that how to solve the problem of the snow and ice on the road efficiently, rapidly and environmental-friendly. In this paper, the experimental correlation formula of snow-melting rate and surface temperatures was investigated thoroughly in a self-built test rig of thermal snow-melting system. Meanwhile, the "thermal pipe - subgrade - snow" coupling model was developed to study the lag snow-melting mechanism. By means of the transient numerical analysis of the heat transfer law under complex structural type and ambient condition, the influence of the pipe depth, pipe spacing, heating temperature and ambient temperature on the total snow-melting time during the complex snow-melting process was shown and discussed. The results could be considered as basic references for the design and optimization of the thermal snow-melting system.