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Engineers Work to Scale Up Tests of Heated Pavement
USAgNet - 03/19/2019

The paving crew extended a mixer truck's chute over the stainless steel electrodes that make up part of a heated pavement technology developed by Iowa State University engineers.

And then came the other part: a load of electrically conductive concrete. The first delivery of the thick, heavy mixture slid onto one of the steel rods that send electricity -- and ultimately, heat -- throughout the concrete.

It was a raw, gray October afternoon on the Iowa Department of Transportation campus in Ames. Even the Manatt's Inc. crew members were in sweatshirts with hoods pulled up.

As the crew hustled to work the wet concrete with shovels, spreaders and hand trowels, Iowa State engineers went to work, too.

Halil Ceylan -- an Iowa State professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering, the director of the Institute for Transportation's Program for Sustainable Pavement Engineering and Research and leader of the heated-pavement project -- recorded video footage from the edge of the work site.

Amir Malakooti, a doctoral student and research assistant in civil, construction and environmental engineering and lead construction student for the project, was ready with a shovel. He scooped up the fresh concrete and carefully covered the sensitive temperature probes and strain gauges the researchers were embedding in the pavement.

Nearby, doctoral students Sajed Sadati and Wei Shen Theh monitored the paving after helping with last-minute preparations such as pulling yards of cable through protection pipes. Sadati, of civil, construction and environmental engineering, developed computer models for the project that will plug in test data to simulate pavement performance and operating costs. Theh, of electrical and computer engineering, designed the electrical and control systems for the heated slabs, including a new smart control system that can maintain a constant temperature in the concrete.

The research team watched as more and more concrete poured from the truck.


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