GEOTHERMAL ENERGY FOR DEICING OF ROAD PAVEMENT(KBR AIRPORT)

Deicing of pavement

  



As the energy currently available to us in the form of non-renewable are out to extinct in the coming decades.. Most of the countries like India are still backward in term of usage of this energy despite its tremendous availability in the region like north region viz; Ladakh. Being a good scope for civil engineer in the
geothermal plant we need to strengthen the idea and usage of this energy in appropriate way. This report emphasizes the civil engineer work in geothermal plant especially geothermal pile and to explore the usage of the energy in real life. This energy has its vast importance at both domestic level as well as commercial level.

KUSHOK BAKULA RINPOCHEY AIRPORT LEH LADAKH is one of the highest airport located 3,256 m (10,682 ft) above sea level where snowfall generally disturb the smooth functioning of the airport in winter hence there is need to apply geothermal energy as huge sources of the energy available there because uses of chemical like salt and others types  to melt the snow/ice, lower the life of the pavement.
 Snow melting and deicing technology on runway, heat pipe snow melting system was researched in papers. The energy used in the system is the ground thermal energy which is the renewable and environmental friendly energy. An actual full scale snow melting system with heat pipe technology is built, and experiments of the melting process are analyzed on the concrete pavement. From the snow melting system experimental results, the following conclusions can be obtained:
(1) As the heat transfer effect of heat pipe system, the pavement temperature increases about 8°C, and the daily range of the pavement temperature decreases to 40%, which gives a more steady state to concrete.
(2) The surface temperature decreases about 2°C as the pipe embedded depth increases from 6cm to 15cm; therefore, the pavement temperature field can be improved by a proper burial depth of heat pipe.
(3) Environment temperature is a decision variable that has a dominant role in the pavement temperature field. It is probably freezing at heat pipe pavement when the air temperature is below −8°C.

(4) Snow melting and ant freezing test result proves the well working performance of heat pipe snow melting system. This system is useful for melting sudden snowfall, which can ensure flight safety. The ground soil heats the pavement with the heat pipe system in winter and recovers in summer by itself, and this snow melting system can run for a long time.

We can use geothermal energy for electricity production, for heating and cooling purposes of buildings. Winter maintenance of pavement today is normally based on mechanical snow clearance together with the use of salt. The spreading of salt causes impacts on plants and the ground. Winter traffic situations lead to reduced speeds, traffic jams and therefore to losses of time. New economical and environment-friendly solutions are needed in winter maintenance to increase road safety and mobility. Winter maintenance “from the bottom” using renewable and free geothermal heat is an obvious solution and a chance to achieve these goals. Geothermally heated outside surfaces are typically based on hydronic heat exchanger installations in the pavement. The installed heating capacity depends on the climatic conditions and the system specifications. Snow melting needs higher system temperatures than simple prevention of ice-formation. Low system temperatures implicate an anticipatory operation control.

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