Electrically heated pavements may be an efficient method for removing ice

Newswise — Researchers from Rowan University’s Center for Research & Education in Advanced Transportation Engineering Systems (CREATES) are developing an efficient, cost-effective, electrically heated pavement system designed to melt away snow and ice from roadways and airfields. 

Results from full-scale tests conducted at Rowan’s testing facility in southern New Jersey were recently published in Transportation Research Record, a scientific journal published by Transportation Research Board, part of The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Conducted during the winters of 2021 and 2022, the study compared a conventional pavement test strip against two electrically heated strips paved with either conductive asphalt binder or a conductive asphalt mixture containing a modified, high-performance thin overlay mixture with graphite and carbon fibers.

Both heated pavement test strips were installed over steel electrodes, spaced at six or 12 inches apart, and connected to a power source.

Electrical data from the heated test strips showed the strip containing the conductive high-performance overlay mixture required nearly 50 percent less power to warm the surface above freezing than the strip containing the conductive asphalt binder.

“We are dedicated to advancing this electrically heated pavement system to make it a viable and sustainable solution for winter weather maintenance,” said Yusuf Mehta, Ph.D., CREATES director and the project’s principal investigator. “By refining these methodologies, we aim to contribute to safer and more efficient travel, not just in New Jersey, but potentially across regions experiencing severe winter challenges.”

The next phase of research will be conducted at full scale under extreme cold weather conditions at an Arctic testing facility operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said Ayman Ali, Ph.D., CREATES associate director and the project’s co-principal investigator.

“Successful application of the electrically heated pavement systems will help the Army and other Department of Defense agencies build safe, horizontal infrastructure, such as airfields and runways,” Ali said. “We expect this design will reduce delays in air operations in the Arctic and subarctic regions.”

The project was funded through a grant from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Cold Regions Research Engineering Laboratory (CRREL). The lead author on the study was Ashith Marath, a civil engineering doctoral student. Marath was supervised by Ali, Mehta and Ahmed Saidi, Ph.D., a CREATES research fellow.