Hybrid Heated Airport Pavements: Volume I—Electrically Conductive Concrete for Pavement Deicing

Ice and snow accumulation on airport pavement surfaces is a significant source of safety risks. Managing this risk can impose considerable costs on the transportation sector. Traditional deicing methods involve sand/chemical mixtures that pose environmental concerns. Therefore, the need to develop new technologies that can more effectively and efficiently remove or prevent the formation of ice and snow on paved surfaces is imperative. In the context of developing new technologies to achieve snow- and ice-free airfield pavement systems, this research study was conducted in two parts: (1) the development of electrically conductive concrete (ECON) (Volume I) and (2) the development of a superhydrophobic coating method that can repel moisture and reduce ice adhesion on concrete pavements (Volume II). This report (Volume I) focuses on the development of ECON. In this part of the study, a literature review was conducted on state-of-the-art ECON materials to identify the various conductive materials that have been investigated in the past, their optimal concentration levels to achieve desirable system-level engineering properties, and the multiple challenges in optimizing the ECON mix design with desirable electrical and mechanical properties. Laboratory experimental investigations were conducted on both conductive mortar and ECON mixtures to develop an optimized ECON mix design recipe for a prototype ECON heated slab. Both the ECON mix design recipe and the prototype ECON heated slab developed in this study demonstrated a successful proof-of-concept of the ECON heated pavement system (HPS). The effects of the easy-to-change mix design factors on electrical and mechanical properties of ECON are discussed for producing ECON with higher functionality, higher constructability, and lower production cost to be applied in full-scale and industrial applications of HPSs

DOT/FAA/TC-21/33 Authors: Alireza Sassani, Halil Ceylan, Sunghwan Kim, Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan, Hesham Abdualla, Shuo Yang, Ali Arabzadeh, and Peter C. Taylor