CFD-Based Sensitivity-Analysis and Performance Investigation of a Hydronic Road-Heating System

Arslan Ahmed (), Fosca Conti (), Michael Schießl-Widera and Markus Goldbrunner
Additional contact information
Arslan Ahmed: Institute of New Energy Systems, Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt, Esplanade 10, 85049 Ingolstadt, Germany
Fosca Conti: Institute of New Energy Systems, Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt, Esplanade 10, 85049 Ingolstadt, Germany
Michael Schießl-Widera: Technical Infrastructure Planning, I/P2-434 Audi AG, 85045 Ingolstadt, Germany
Markus Goldbrunner: Institute of New Energy Systems, Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt, Esplanade 10, 85049 Ingolstadt, Germany

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 5, 1-16

Abstract: To minimize the impact of snowfall and ice formation on safety of transportation, salt is sprinkled on the asphalt every winter. However, the use of salt has economical as well as ecological disadvantages. To resolve these problems, road heating systems are used in the northern regions of Europe and America. Despite their widespread usage, considerable potential of the operational optimization is evident. The current systems are controlled under predefined weather conditions such as start of operation at 5 °C air temperature, even when snowfall is absent. Consequently, loss of energy input to heat the system is caused. To avoid unnecessary financial and energetic expense, this study presents CFD-based performance investigation as a basis for a novel predictive controller to increase the operational efficiency of hydronic road heating systems (HRS). The simulation model was developed based on a real operational HRS located in Ingolstadt and composed of bridges and ramps for a total surface of 1989 m 2 . Climate data of the years 2019–2020 from local weather stations were implemented in the simulation model for performance prediction on extreme climate conditions. This investigation identified that up to 70% of operational hours in terms of energy input can be saved by using a hypothetical predictive controller, thus making the HRS a more economically efficient and environmentally attractive alternate to conventional de-icing techniques.

Keywords: hydronic road-heating system (HRS); performance optimization; snow removal; de-icing; computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation; asphalt; water–ethanol heating fluid; predictive controller (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: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2173/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2173/ (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:16:y:2023:i:5:p:2173-:d:1078692

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 ().