ABSTRACT
The emergence of Hydronic Asphalt Pavements (HAPs) presents an alternative pavement system that is both more durable and more sustainable. HAP consists of a series of pipes embedded within the asphalt pavement and through which a fluid circulates. The purpose of such a system can be any of the following: snow-melting and deicing, cooling the pavement, and/or energy-extraction. In this paper, a transient 3D heat transfer model is developed in a MATLAB environment to simulate the thermal behavior of HAPs as geometrical and thermo-physical properties of the system are varied. It was found that the surface temperature of the pavement is sensitive mostly to the thermal conductivity of the pavement, followed by pipe spacing, depth, diameter, and lastly flow rate. It was also established that investing in asphalt of higher conductivity can be more economical than using pipes of high conductivity such as copper.
