Experimental study of hydronic melting process of ice and snow on pavements

A small-scale hydronic ice and snow melting system for pavements was built, and dynamic melting experiments of crushed ice, solid ice, artificial snow and natural snow were carried out under different operating conditions. The melting time and melting velocity of different ice and snow were compared. The results showed that the melting process includes three phases: starting period, linear period and accelerated period, and depending on thermal properties of ice and snow, the critical free area ratio between the latter two periods is obtained. The idling process is an effective approach to improve the melting performance, and it is unnecessary to keep a high fluid temperature.