Snow melting on a road unit as affected by thermal fluids in different embedded pipes

Abstract Snow melting on a road unit circulating thermal fluids was experimentally conducted in the severely cold region of China, Harbin. The performances (snow-free area ratio, average road-surface temperature, and energy consumption) at different embedded pipe depths (60, 80, and 100 mm) with snow thickness of 43 mm at the ambient temperatures of −7.93 to −9.36 °C were presented and discussed. It was observed that the snow-melting process could be divided into three periods according to the snow-free area ratio: (a) starting period (0), (b) rapid period (0–0.7), and (c) slow period (0.7–1.0). The average road-surface temperatures for the starting, rapid, and slow periods fluctuated mainly in the ranges of −4–0, 0–1, and 1–10 °C, respectively. The energy consumption gradually decreased over time with the averages of 1170.8–1959.7 W/m2. The results also revealed that the embedded pipe depth of 80 mm could be adopted in the hydronic road-heating system. The contents presented in this work can guide the design of a hydronic road-heating system for snow melting in severely cold regions.