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Abstract Winter road maintenance is costly but it is necessary in order to keep roads accessible and safe during winter. Current winter road maintenance methods use 600,000 tons of salt annually, in the Nordic countries. The salt ends up in the environment along the roads and results in environmental challenges. Alternative winter maintenance methods that use heat instead of salt are in use today. However, those systems are designed to use high temperature of about 20–35 °C. This paper presents a numerical model for designing low temperature (4–8 °C) hydronic heated pavements (HHP). The model is validated against an experimental setup and different control strategies are evaluated. The validation indicated that the developed model can predict the behavior of the HHP with a root mean square error (RMSE) <1.4 °C for surface temperatures and <0.4 °C for the return fluid. In this paper the model is used with two different control strategies. A basic strategy controlling the system based on air temperature and one strategy based on dew point temperature. With dew point regulation the energy consumption can be reduced by 62%. However, the energy consumption is still in the range of 125–180kWh/m2 for the location of Östersund, Sweden. We found that the HHP system can utilize low temperature sources like waste energy or geothermal energy that is freely available. By using renewable energy for winter road maintenance, the environmental impact from winter road maintenance can be reduced. Highligths • Dewpoint control reduces the energy demand for heated pavements. • Low supply temperatures of 2-8 °C makes it possible to use renewable energy sources. • Presents a 3-D numerical model including the fluid domain for heated pavements. • Snow ploughing strategies affects the energy usage more a low temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Uneven frost heave in roads and railways is a frequent problem in cold regions leading to degradation of structures. To improve drainage, culverts are frequently integrated into road and railway embankments. The presence of culverts changes the temperature distribution in the surrounding soil as cold air passes through the culvert. Consequently, frost depth and corresponding frost heave are increased in the vicinity of the culvert compared to the rest of the structure if frost susceptible soil is present. For an accurate frost related design, information of heat balance between the culvert and the surrounding soil is needed. A field study focusing on convective heat transfer in culverts was conducted in northern Sweden by the authors. Temperatures and air velocities in culverts of three sizes (0.6, 0.8 and 3.4 m) were recorded. Analysis of obtained data is presented in this paper with emphasis on the influence of air velocity on the temperature distribution. Influence of wind on development of airflow in culverts is also addressed. Accuracy of trained gaussian process regression (GPR) models is estimated in predicting temperature distribution inside of culverts. It is concluded, based on the field measurement data, that airflow can significantly affect temperature distribution inside culverts and development of airflow in culverts is largely influenced by the orientation of the culvert in relation to the predominant wind direction. • Air flow is a significant factor in determination of thermal boundary conditions inside the culverts. • Orientation of the culvert in relation to the predominant wind direction contributes to the development of airflow inside the culverts. • Airflow inside of the culvert will influence frost depth under the culvert resulting in increased frost depth at the inlet [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the development and installation of a prototype ice load panel and measurements of ice load from February 2016 to February 2018 at the Rätan hydropower dam in Sweden. The design of the 1 × 3 m2 panel enables direct measurement of ice pressure on the concrete surface is based on previous experience from similar measurements with sea ice. Important features of the design are sufficient height and width to reduce scale effects and to cover the ice thickness and variations in water level. The Rätan dam was chosen based on several criteria so that the ice load is considered to be reasonably idealized against the dam structure. For the three winters 2016, 2016/2017, 2017/2018, the maximum ice load recorded was 161 kN/m, 164 kN/m and 61 kN/m respectively. There were significant daily fluctuations during the cold winter months, and the daily peak ice loads showed a visual correlation with the daily average temperature and with the daily pattern of operation of the power station with its corresponding water level variations. • Development and installation of a prototype ice load panel on a concrete dam • Direct measurement of the ice pressure acting on the upstream dam surface • The 1 x 3 m2 panel capture compressive and tensile forces over the whole ice thickness. • Significant daily fluctuations in ice pressure, caused by variation in water level • The Maximum ice loads recorded for three winters was 161 kN/m, 164 kN/m and 61 kN/m [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]