Heated Airport Pavements

Maintaining operational safety and status of airport runways during snowfall events is a challenging issue that many airports are grappling with. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory Circular 150/5370-17 (dated 2011), most transport category aircraft are prohibited from operating on runways covered by untreated ice or by more than 1/2 inch of snow or slush, although the limits vary with aircraft types. The surface traction of pavement is dramatically influenced by frozen precipitation in the form of ice, snow, or slush. This can seriously hamper smooth air traffic management operations and cause traffic delays at other airports. Ice and snow on transportation infrastructure systems add significant costs to the American economy via snow removal, damaged pavement and bridge surfaces and lost man-hours due to travel delay. It is imperative that both small and large airports maintain operational status during snowfall events to support the existing operations as well as the FAA's NextGen concept as mentioned in the Airport Technology Research Plan for the NextGen Decade (dated January 2012). This project proposes a 3-pronged approach to investigate the efficacy and cost effectiveness of new heated pavement technologies. The project proposes to investigate: the relative energy and monetary needs to remove snow from a slab by conducting an energy and financial viability analyses under Task 1-A; a hybrid approach combining electrically conductive concrete with lotus-leaf-inspired super-hydrophobic surfaces under Task 1-B; and the application of nano-coatings of low temperature phase change materials with the intent of preventing ice and slush formation under Task 1-C. The project anticipates that these three tasks will run in parallel.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $2345030
• Contract Numbers:

  12-C-GA-ISU-002,003,005,006

  12-C-GA-PU-005,006,015,018,045

  12-C-GA-ISU-010

  12-C-GA-ISU-019

  12-C-GA-PU-080

  12-C-GA-ISU-023

  12-C-GA-ISU-025

  12-C-GA-ISU-026

  12-C-GA-ISU-028

  12-C-GA-ISU-030

  12-C-GA-ISU-040

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Aviation Administration

  William J. Hughes Technical Center, Atlantic City International Airport
  Atlantic City, NJ  United States  08405
• Project Managers:

  Mahaffay, Benjamin

• Performing Organizations:

  Iowa State University, Ames

  Institute for Transportation
  2711 South Loop Drive, Suite 4700
  Ames, Iowa  United States  50010-8664

  Purdue University, West Lafayette

  School of Civil Engineering
  West Lafayette, IN  United States  47907-1284
• Principal Investigators:

  Ceylan, Halil

  Haddock, John

• Start Date: 20130814
• Expected Completion Date: 20230729
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• Source Data: PEGASAS Project 1

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Airport runways; Coatings; Concrete; Conducting materials; Heat conduction; Pavement components; Pavement design; Snow and ice control
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Design; Materials; Pavements;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01587306
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Partnership to Enhance General Aviation Safety, Accessibility and Sustainability
• Contract Numbers: 12-C-GA-ISU-002,003,005,006, 12-C-GA-PU-005,006,015,018,045, 12-C-GA-ISU-010, 12-C-GA-ISU-019, 12-C-GA-PU-080, 12-C-GA-ISU-023, 12-C-GA-ISU-025, 12-C-GA-ISU-026, 12-C-GA-ISU-028, 12-C-GA-ISU-030, 12-C-GA-ISU-040
• Files: RIP, USDOT
• Created Date: Jan 19 2016 4:04PM