Snow Melt in Concrete Pavement
Snow Melt in Concrete Pavement
(OP)
I am looking at adding a hydronic snow melt system to concrete pavement. Any recommendations for design guidance? Typically I would design the pavement using the PCA, Thickness Design for Concrete Highway and Street Pavements.
Any guidance is greatly appreciated!
Any guidance is greatly appreciated!





RE: Snow Melt in Concrete Pavement
RE: Snow Melt in Concrete Pavement
RE: Snow Melt in Concrete Pavement
RE: Snow Melt in Concrete Pavement
RE: Snow Melt in Concrete Pavement
Also, the summertime temperature differential's effect on the pavement may not be a good predictor of the same amount of differential in the winter because the any curling would be in the opposite direction. A pavement warm on the bottom, cold on top would tend to curl the edges upward (away from edge base support), but the summertime differential would create forces in the opposite direction (toward edge support, away from support in center area). I would guess that the wintertime type curling would be more likely to produce longitudinal cracking due to reduced support under loading than would an equal differential of summertime type curling.
RE: Snow Melt in Concrete Pavement
I doubt putting the heating elements in the bottom of the slab would be effective. Around here concrete pavement starts at a minimum of 8" and goes up to 16" or so. I was thinking the heating elements would be more like 2-4" from the upper surface.
RE: Snow Melt in Concrete Pavement
May I ask what is the size and intended purpose of the pavement?
RE: Snow Melt in Concrete Pavement
I would give a lot of thought to special designs for the non-heated areas adjacent to the heated section. From my experience, this is where you will get the most failures. The extreme temperature difference (particularly in the basecourse and subgrade) can cause lots of uneven settling/heaving during the winter and spring. You also can get issues with the melted water from the heated areas draining onto the surface of the colder sections - this water gets into seams, etc. and freezes causing more damage.
For instance, it's typical to have a heated sidewalk adjacent to an unheated curb and gutter. In this instance, it's best to try to extend your heating elements into the curb and gutter or even into the c&g basecourse. You should also consider carrying out your basecourse past the extent of the concrete and slowly decreasing your basecourse thickness as you go out further. This will minimize the direct contact from heated basecourse material to cold subgrade and therefore minimize differential settlement between the two materials.