Experimental and theoretical investigation of using ground source heat pump system for melting snow and ice on roads

Preventing snow accumulation and ice formation on roads, especially on some critical sections including bridges, emergencies of hospital and ramps etc. is important to improve transportation safety in winter months. Recently, an alternative method to applying salting, sanding and using mechanical devices is to use automatically controlled hydronic and electrical snow melting systems to prevent ice formation and melting snow/ice on critical surfaces. Instead of salting, sanding and using mechanical devices such systems can reduce the rate of corrosion drastically bridge decks and so extend the life of road.Experimental and numerical study was carried out for melting snow/ice on bridge and ground prototype slabs by ground source heat pump. The experimental system is composed of an underground thermal utility for snow/ice melting by using vertical ground heat exchanger, heat pump and bridge/ground slabs. Experimental and numerical study had been compared by using three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models with Fluent 6.2 software. In case of using boreholes, increasing of average surface temperature in bridge slab was obtained as 0.4 ?C for each depth of 30 meters while increasing of average surface temperature in pavement slab was obtained as 0.5 ?C for each depth of 30 meters.These type systems should be used for preventing formation of snow/ice on roads leads to numerous dangerous accidents in our country and these type projects should be supported by the governments.Keywords: Ground source heat pump, snow, ice, melting, Fluent, CFD, bridge, road, experimental, numerical.