Numerical Investigation of Harvesting Solar Energy and Anti-Icing Road Surfaces Using a Hydronic Heating Pavement and Borehole Thermal Energy Storage

Raheb Mirzanamadi, Carl-Eric Hagentoft and Pär Johansson
Additional contact information
Raheb Mirzanamadi: Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
Carl-Eric Hagentoft: Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
Pär Johansson: Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 12, 1-23

Abstract: Hydronic Heating Pavement (HHP) is an environmentally friendly method for anti-icing the roads. The HHP system harvests solar energy during summer, stores it in a Seasonal Thermal Energy Storage (STES) and releases the stored energy for anti-icing the road surface during winter. The aims of this study are to investigate: (i) the feasibility of HHP system with low fluid temperature for harvesting solar energy and anti-icing the road surface; and (ii) the long-term operation of the STES. In this study, a Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) is considered to be the STES. The HHP system and the BTES are decoupled from each other and their performances are investigated separately. A hybrid 3D numerical simulation model is developed to analyze the operation of the HHP system. Moreover, a 3D numerical simulation model is made to calculate the temperature evolution at the borehole walls of the BTES. The climate data are obtained from Östersund, a city in the middle of Sweden with long and cold winter periods. Considering the HHP system with the inlet fluid temperature of 4 °C, the road area of 50 m × 3.5 m as well as the BTES with 20 boreholes and 200 m depth, the result showed that the harvested solar energy during summer is 352.1 kWh / ( m 2 · year ) , the required energy for anti-icing the road surface is 81.2 kWh / ( m 2 · year ) and the average temperature variation at the borehole walls after 50 years is +0.5 °C. Installing the HHP system in the road leads to a 1725 h shorter remaining number of hours of slippery condition on the road surface during winter and a 5.1 °C lower temperature on the road surface during summer, compared to a road without the HHP system.

Keywords: ice-free road; hybrid 3D model; slippery surface; anti-icing; fluid temperature decline (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/12/3443/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/12/3443/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:12:p:3443-:d:189184

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().