Numerical simulation on the thermal response of heat-conducting asphalt pavements

作者:Wang, Hong*; Wu, Shaopeng; Chen, Mingyu; Zhang, Yuan
来源:Physica Scripta, 2010, T139: 014041.
DOI:10.1088/0031-8949/2010/T139/014041

摘要

Using asphalt pavements as a solar collector is a subject of current interest all over the world because the sun provides a cheap and abundant source of clean and renewable energy, which can be captured by black asphalt pavements. A heat-conducting device is designed to absorb energy from the sun. In order to validate what parameters are critical in the asphalt collector, a finite element model is developed to predict the thermal response of the heat-conducting device compared to the conventional asphalt mixture. Some factors that may affect the asphalt pavement collector are considered, including the coefficient of heat conductivity of the asphalt pavement, the distance between pipes with the medium, water, and the pipe's diameter. Ultimately, the finite element model can provide pavement engineers with an efficient computational tool that can be a guide to the conductive asphalt solar collector's experiment in the laboratory.