Exploring the Potential of Energy Geostructures for Road and Bridge Pavement Heating and Cooling

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Ensuring safe winter transportation and preventing snow and ice accumulation on critical infrastructure are vital priorities. Over the past two decades, hydronic heating systems have been deployed to control snow and ice on paved surfaces such as roads, bridges, and airport aprons, traditionally powered by conventional energy sources. Recently, shallow geothermal energy has emerged as a promising alternative to support these systems, exploitable through Energy Geostructures (EGs), including energy piles. Their potential to provide thermal energy for heating and cooling road surfaces remains underexplored. This paper investigates the possibility of using 30-meter-long, 0.5-meter-diameter energy piles embedded in the abutment foundation of a bridge prototype subjected to typical Central European climate conditions, and connected to a hydronic pavement system for snow-melting in winter and cooling down during hot summer conditions, through numerical simulations. The study aims to assess the systems thermo-mechanical performance to evaluate the system efficiency and its effect on the structural integrity of the piled foundation. The numerical model simulates the heat exchange between the geothermal system and the surrounding soil, incorporating key operational parameters and environmental conditions. The results confirm that geothermal deep foundations, integrated with heat pipes in bridge deck pavement, provide an efficient solution for snow-melting in winter and cooling in summer. Thermal loads minimally affect energy pile stresses, causing only slight variations in compressive forces. The heat flux is adequate for snow-melting, requiring minimal heat pump support, and effectively lowers surface temperatures in summer. Intermittent operation is recommended to improve efficiency and thermal interaction.

4th Asia-Pacific Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics (ACPMG2024)

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