Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Novel conductive wearing course using a graphite, carbon fiber, and epoxy resin mixture for active de-icing of asphalt concrete pavement

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Materials and Structures Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Ice and snow on road surfaces can affect driving safety severely and cause accidents. Numerous active snow and ice removal technologies, such as conductive asphalt concrete, heating cables and pipes, have been developed in recent years. However, they reduce the lifetime of the pavement and cannot be applied on the existing roads. In this study, a novel conductive ultra-thin anti-skidding wearing course (CUAWC) is firstly proposed, which consists of a lower conductive layer and an upper wearing course. The conductive layer consists of a mixture of graphite, carbon fiber, and an epoxy resin adhesive. The optimal proportion of each additive was determined using an electrical conductivity test. The mass percolation threshold of graphite and carbon fiber in the conductive mixture were 25 and 4%, respectively. Freeze–thaw cycle and cyclic loading tests were conducted to evaluate the long-term skid resistance and resistivity fluctuation rate of the CUAWC. Finally, a laboratory de-icing test and a field snow melting test were performed. The CUAWC specimens had good skid resistance, good durability and stable resistivity, even after multiple freezing–thawing cycles and a million load cycles. Furthermore, the proposed CUAWC has lower resistivity and higher conductivity than traditional conductive asphalt concrete and can be laid on top of existing road surfaces.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig.1
Fig.2
Fig.3
Fig.4
Fig.5
Fig.6
Fig.7
Fig.8
Fig.9
Fig.10
Fig.11
Fig.12

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Strong CK, Ye Z, Shi X (2010) Safety effects of winter weather: The state of knowledge and remaining challenges. Transp Rev 30:677–699

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Yehia S, Tuan CY, Ferdon D, Chen B (2000) Conductive concrete overlay for bridge deck deicing: mixture proportioning, optimization, and properties. ACI Mater J 97:172–181

    Google Scholar 

  3. Wu S, Pan P, Chen M, Zhang Y (2013) Analysis of characteristics of electrically conductive asphalt concrete prepared by multiplex conductive materials. J Mater Civ Eng 25:871–879

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Yu W, Yi X, Guo M, Chen L (2014) State of the art and practice of pavement anti icing and de-icing techniques. Sci Cold Arid Reg 6:14–21

    Google Scholar 

  5. Ramakrishna DM, Viraraghavan T (2005) Environmental impact of chemical deicers—a review. Water Air Soil Pollut 166:49–63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Wang K, Nelsen DE, Nixon WA (2006) Damaging effects of deicing chemicals on concrete materials. Cement Concrete Comp 28:173–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Kang Y, Hansen W, Borgnakke C (2012) Effect of air-void system on frost expansion of highway concrete exposed to deicer salt. Int J Pavement Eng 13:259–266

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Green SM, Machin R, Cresser MS (2008) Effect of long-term changes in soil chemistry induced by road salt applications on N-transformations in roadside soils. Environ Pollut 152:20–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Norrström AC (2005) Metal mobility by de-icing salt from an infiltration trench for highway runoff. Appl Geochem 20:1907–1919

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Thunqvist EL (2003) Increased chloride concentration in a lake due to deicing salt application. Water Sci Technol 48:51–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Thunqvist EL (2004) Regional increase of mean chloride concentration in water due to the application of deicing salt. Sci Total Environ 325:29–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Blomqvist G, Johansson EL (1999) Airborne spreading and deposition of de-icing salt—a case study. Sci Total Environ 235:161–168

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Löfgren S (2001) The chemical effects of deicing salt on soil and stream water of five catchments in southeast Sweden. Water Air Soil Pollut 130:863–868

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Bäckström M, Karlsson S, Bäckman L, Folkeson L, Lind B (2004) Mobilisation of heavy metals by deicing salts in a roadside environment. Water Res 38:720–732

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Novotny EV, Murphy D, Stefan HG (2008) Increase of urban lake salinity by road deicing salt. Sci Total Environ 406:131–144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Kayama M, Quoreshi AM, Kitaoka S, Kitahashi Y, Sakamoto Y, Maruyama Y, Kityao M, Koike T (2003) Effects of deicing salt on the vitality and health of two spruce species, Picea abies Karst., and Picea glehnii Masters planted along roadsides in northern Japan. Environ Pollut 124:127–137

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Rao R, Fu J, Chan Y, Tuan CY, Liu C (2018) Steel fiber confined graphite concrete for pavement deicing. Compos Part B Eng 155:187–196

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Liu X, Rees SJ, Spitler JD (2007) Modeling snow melting on heated pavement surfaces. Part I: model development. Appl Therm Eng 27:1115–1124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Xu H, Wang D, Tan Y, Zhou J, Oeser M (2018) Investigation of design alternatives for hydronic snow melting pavement systems in china. J Clean Prod 170:1413–1422

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Pan P, Wu S, Xiao Y, Liu G (2015) A review on hydronic asphalt pavement for energy harvesting and snow melting. Renew Sust Energ Rev 48:624–634

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Balbay A, Esem M (2013) Temperature distributions in pavement and bridge slabs heated by using vertical ground-source heat pump systems. Acta Sci 35:677–685

    Google Scholar 

  22. Zheng ZT, Xu Y, Dong JH, Zhang LF, Wang LP (2016) Design and experimental testing of a gound source heat pump system based on energy-saving solar collector. J Energy Eng 142:04015022

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Zhao HM, Wang SG, Wu ZM, Che GJ (2010) Concrete slab installed with carbon fiber heating wire for bridge deck deicing. J Transport Eng 136:500–509

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Chang C, Ho M, Song G, Mo YL, Li H (2009) A feasibility study of self-heating concrete utilizing carbon nanofiber heating elements. Smart Mater Struct 18:127001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Lai Y, Liu Y, Ma D (2014) Automatically melting snow on airport cement concrete pavement with carbon fiber grille. Cold Reg Sci Technol 103:57–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Zhang Q, Yu Y, Chen W, Chen T, Zhou Y, Li H (2016) Outdoor experiment of flexible sandwiched graphite-PET sheets based self-snow-thawing pavement. Cold Reg Sci Technol 122:10–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. García Á, Schlangen E, van de Ven M, Liu Q (2009) Electrical conductivity of asphalt mortar containing conductive fibers and fillers. Constr Build Mater 23:3175–3181

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Huang B, Chen X, Shu X (2009) Effects of electrically conductive additives on laboratory measured properties of asphalt mixtures. J Mater Civ Eng 21:612–617

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Liu X, Wu S, Ye Q, Qiu J, Li B (2008) Properties evaluation of asphalt-based composites with graphite and mine powders. Constr Build Mater 22:121–126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Vo HV, Park DW, Seo WJ, Yoo BS (2016) Evaluation of asphalt mixture modifed with graphite and carbon fbers for winter adaptation: thermal conductivity improvement. J Mater Civ Eng 29:04016176

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Heymsfifield E, Osweiler A, Selvam P, Kuss M (2014) Developing anti-icing air field runways using conductive concrete with renewable energy. J Cold Reg Eng 28:979–986

    Google Scholar 

  32. Yang T, Yang ZJ, Singla M, Song G, Li Q (2012) Experimental study on carbon fifiber tapeebased deicing technology. J Cold Reg Eng 26:55–70

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Liu X, Wu S (2011) Study on the graphite and carbon fiber modified asphalt concrete. Constr Build Mater 25:1807–1811

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Sassani A, Ceylan H, Kim S, Gopalakrishnan K, Arabzadeh A, Taylor PC (2017) Influence of mix design variables on engineering properties of carbon fiber-modified electrically conductive concrete. Constr Build Mater 152:168–181

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Chang C, Song G, Gao D, Mo YL (2013) Temperature and mixing effects on electrical resistivity of carbon fiber enhanced concrete. Smart Mater Struct 22:35021

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Wen S, Chung DDL (2004) Effects of carbon black on the thermal, mechanical and electrical properties of pitch-matrix composites. Carbon 42:2393–2397

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Wu S, Mo L, Shui Z, Chen Z (2005) Investigation of the conductivity of asphalt concrete containing conductive fillers. Carbon 43:1358–1363

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Tuan CY (2004) Electrical resistance heating of conductive concrete containing steel fibers and shavings. ACI Mater J 101:65–71

    Google Scholar 

  39. Liu Q, Schlangen E, van de Ven M (2010) Induction heating of electrically conductive porous asphalt concrete. Constr Build Mater 24:1207–1213

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Karimi MM, Darabi MK, Jahanbakhsh H, Jahangiri B, Rushing JF (2019) Effect of steel wool fibers on mechanical and induction heating response of conductive asphalt concrete. Int J Pavement Eng 2019:1–14

    Google Scholar 

  41. Serin S, Morova N, Saltan M, Terzi S (2012) Investigation of usability of steel fibers in asphalt concrete mixtures. Constr Build Mater 36:238–244

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Xie P, Gu P, Beaudoin JJ (1996) Electrical percolation phenomena in cement composites containing conductive fibres. J Mater Sci Technol 31:4093–4097

    Google Scholar 

  43. Tuan CY, Yehia S (2004) Evaluation of electrically conductive concrete containing carbon prod for deicing. ACI Mater J 101:287–293

    Google Scholar 

  44. Fitzgerald RL (2000) Novel applications of carbon fiber for hot mix asphalt reinforcement and carbon-carbon pre-forms, Master thesis, Department of Chemical Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Michigan

  45. Wu J, Liu J, Yang F (2015) Three-Phase Composite Conductive Concrete for Pavement Deicing. Constr Build Mater 75:129–135

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Pan P, Wu S, Xiao F, Pang L, Xiao Y (2015) Conductive asphalt concrete: a review on structural design, performance, and practical applications. J Intell Mater Syst Struct 26:755–769

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Liu X, Liu W, Wu S, Wang C (2014) Effect of carbon fillers on electrical and road properties of conductive asphalt materials. Constr Build Mater 68:301–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Wen S, Chung DDL (2007) Double percolation in the electrical conduction in carbon fiber reinforced cement-based materials. Carbon 45:263–267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Ding Y, Han Z, Zhang Y, Aguiar JB (2016) Concrete with triphasic conductive materials for self-monitoring of cracking development subjected to flexure. Compos Struct 138:184–191

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Liu X, Wu S (2009) Research on the conductive asphalt concrete’s piezoresistivity effect and its mechanism. Constr Build Mater 23:2752

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Kim MK, Kim DJ, An YK (2018) Electro-mechanical self-sensing response of ultra-highperformance fber-reinforced concrete in tension. Compos Part B Eng 134:254–264

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. GarcíaÁ, (2012) Self-healing of open cracks in asphalt mastic. Fuel 93:264–272

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. GarcíaÁ N-C, Bueno M, Partl MN (2015) Single and multiple healing of porous and dense asphalt concrete. J Intell Mater Syst Struct 26:425–433

    Article  Google Scholar 

  54. Dai Q, Wang Z, Mohd H, Mohd R (2013) Investigation of induction healing effects on electrically conductive asphalt mastic and asphalt concrete beams through fracture-healing tests. Constr Build Mater 49:729–737

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. Liu Q, Schlangen E, van de Ven M, van Bochove G, van Montfort J (2012) Evaluation of the induction healing effect of porous asphalt concrete through four point bending fatigue test. Constr Build Mater 29:403–409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  56. Jahanbakhsh H, Karimi MM, Jahangiri B, Nejad FM (2018) Induction heating and healing of carbon black modifed asphalt concreteunder microwave radiation. Constr Build Mater 174:656–666

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. Mallick RB, Chen B, Bhowmick S (2009) Harvesting energy from asphalt pavements and reducing the heat island effect. Int J Sustainable Eng 2:214–228

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Chen J, Chu R, Wang H, Zhang L, Chen X, Du Y (2019) Alleviating urban heat island effect using high-conductivity permeable concrete pavement. J Clean Prod 237:117722

    Article  Google Scholar 

  59. Chen M, Wu S, Wang H, Zhang J (2011) Study of ice and snow melting process on conductive asphalt solar collector. Sol Energy Mater Solar C 95:3241–3250

    Article  Google Scholar 

  60. Dawson AR, Dehdezi PK, Hall MR, Wang J, Isola R (2012) Enhancing thermal properties of asphalt materials for heat storage and transfer applications. Road Mater Pavement Des 13:784–803

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. Wu S, Chen M, Zhang J (2011) Laboratory investigation into thermal response of asphalt pavements as solar collector by application of small-scale slabs. Appl Therm Eng 31:1582–1587

    Article  Google Scholar 

  62. Sassani S, Arabzadeh A, Ceylan H, Kim S, Sadati SMS, Gopalakrishnan K, Taylor PC, Abdualla H (2018) Carbon fiber-based electrically conductive concrete for salt-free deicing of pavements. J Clean Prod 203:799–809

    Article  Google Scholar 

  63. Deng H, Lin L, Ji M, Zhang S, Yang M, Fu Q (2014) Progress on the morphological control of conductive network in conductive polymer composites and the use as electroactive multifunctional materials. Prog Polym Sci 39:627–655

    Article  Google Scholar 

  64. Zou J, Yu Z, Pan Y, Fang X, Ou Y (2002) Conductive mechanism of polymer/graphite conducting composites with low percolation threshold. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 40:954–963

    Article  Google Scholar 

  65. Ravindren R, Mondal S, Nath K, Das N (2019) Prediction of electrical conductivity, double percolation limit and electromagnetic interference shielding effectiveness of copper nanowire flled flexible polymer blend nanocomposites. Compos Part B-Eng 164:559–569

    Article  Google Scholar 

  66. Maiti S, Bera R, Karan SK, Paria S, De A, Khatua BB (2019) PVC bead assisted selective dispersion of MWCNT for designing efficient electromagnetic interference shielding PVC/MWCNT nanocomposite with very low percolation threshold. Compos Part B-Eng 167:377–386

    Article  Google Scholar 

  67. Ryu SW, Kim HS (2016) Development of lower shrinkage and reflection material for concrete pavement. Int J Pavement Eng 17:709–715

    Article  Google Scholar 

  68. Si W, Ma B, Li N, Ren J, Wang H (2014) Reliability-based assessment of deteriorating performance to asphalt pavement under freeze–thaw cycles in cold regions. Constr Build Mater 68:572–579

    Article  Google Scholar 

  69. Cong P, Liu N, Tian Y, Zhang Y (2016) Effects of long-term aging on the properties of asphalt binder containing diatoms. Constr Build Mater 123:534–540

    Article  Google Scholar 

  70. Wang Z, Li K, Wang C (2014) Freezing–thawing effects on electromagnetic wave reflectivity of carbon fiber cement based composites. Constr Build Mater 64:288–292

    Article  Google Scholar 

  71. Allaoui A, Hoa SV, Pugh MD (2007) The electronic transport properties and microstructure of carbon nanofiber/epoxy composites. Compos Sci Technol 68:410–416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  72. Mohiuddin M, Hoa SV (2013) Estimation of contact resistance and its effect on electrical conductivity of CNT/PEEK composites. Compos Sci Technol 79:42–48

    Article  Google Scholar 

  73. Ayish I, Zihlif A (2010) Electrical properties of conductive network in carbon fibers/polymer composites. J Reinf Plast Compos 29:3237–3243

    Article  Google Scholar 

  74. Ministry of Transport of China (2019) Technical specifications for maintenance of highway asphalt pavement JTG 5142–2019. China communication press, Beijin, p 2004

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the support of National Key Research and Development Program of China [grant number 2016YFC0701202] and China Scholarship Council [grant number 201706370102].

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400030, China

    Cheng Li & Xuhong Zhou

  2. Changjiang Institute of Survey, Planning, Design and Research, Wuhan, 430010, China

    Hao Ge

  3. Department of Transportation Engineering, Tongji university, Shanghai, 200233, China

    Daquan Sun

Authors
  1. Cheng Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hao Ge
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Daquan Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Xuhong Zhou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hao Ge.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Li, C., Ge, H., Sun, D. et al. Novel conductive wearing course using a graphite, carbon fiber, and epoxy resin mixture for active de-icing of asphalt concrete pavement. Mater Struct 54, 48 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-021-01628-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1617/s11527-021-01628-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation