Design and Performance Evaluation of an Electric Heating Asphalt Film for Active Snow Melting on Pavements

Snow accumulation and ice formation are common in most areas of northern China. Ice and snow can seriously reduce the skid resistance of road surfaces and impact road traffic and pedestrian safety. This is a serious problem for cold regions. Therefore, finding an efficient and eco-friendly ice and snow removal method is of great significance for traffic safety. In this study, a novel electric heating asphalt film (EHAF) was proposed, which was composed of a thermal conduction layer, a thermal production layer, and a thermal insulation layer. In terms of material composition, the thermal production layer employs carbon fiber mesh fabric, while the thermal conduction layer and thermal insulation layer are based on an SBS-modified asphalt mastic. Following the determination of thermal conductivity and shear strength test, the thermal conduction layer was optimized with a powder-to-binder ratio of 1.2, in which 40% of the mineral powder was substituted with graphite. The thermal insulation layer employed a lower powder-to-binder ratio of 1.0, with 40% of the mineral powder replaced by fly ash. The mesh dimension of the carbon fiber mesh fabric was determined to be 10 mm × 10 mm through an indoor heating experiment. The total thickness of the EHAF was determined to be 2.0 mm through a shear strength test. Finally, the outdoor snow melting experiment was carried out. Under the conditions of an average temperature of −3.87°C and an average wind speed of 2.94 m/s, the EHAF composite pavement completely melted 2 cm of compacted snow after being electrified for 4 h at an input power of 800 W/m2. Under the extreme low temperature condition of −20°C and 3.1 m/s wind speed, the EHAF composite pavement completely melted 10 mm of ice layer after 5 h at an input power of 1,342 W/m2. The results showed that the EHAF exhibited excellent snow melting performance and broad application potential.