SIMPLE ESTIMATION OF THE GROUND WATER TEMPERATURE AND SNOW MELTING PROCESS

Half of the Japanese highways are located in the snowy region where the maximum snow height is 30 cm during the last ten years. Numerous accidents take place during winter because of frozen bridge surfaces. There are several methods of removing the ice and snow on the bridges. This study aims to develop a pipe heating system that is reasonably low cost compared to many other systems. The system developed provides ground water with constant temperature during seasons. Presented is a simple estimation method of the ground water temperature based on an atmospheric temperature model. The paper also discusses the fundamental properties of snow melting through experiments of pipe heating.