Requirements and Test Procedures for Deicing Agents
Winter maintenance in Austria is an important task in order to provide a high level of accessibility and road safety at all times. Winter maintenance accounting for around 25 to 30 %t of maintenance costs and expenditure for de-icing agents amounts to almost a third of these costs in a typical winter and has led to certain requirements for de-icing agents. As abrasive gritting materials have already been ruled out on primary and secondary roads due to high losses and negative impacts on vehicles the focus has been set on de-icing agents. The main criteria for highly effective and efficient de-icing agents are thawing capacity, thawing speed, costs per unit, applicability, and environmental impacts. Furthermore, the available quantity has to be sufficient and the quality of the respective de-icing agent has to be within small margins allowing successful results both in testing and application. Providing the methods and means for both testing existing de-icing agents as well as new products coming on the market is therefore crucial for comparisons, to serve as basis for application recommendations and investment decisions. In the context of the Austrian research projects "Optimization of pre-wetted salting" and "Technical and economic requirements and test procedures for de-icing agents" at the Technical University of Vienna, Institute for Transportation Sciences, the bases for highly reliable testing procedures have been developed. The test procedures include freezing curves for different levels of concentration as well as measurements of thawing capacity and thawing speed. Furthermore, these test procedures provide the means to compare solid de-icing agents and even the impact of grain size as well as liquid de-icers. Further test procedures are revolving around the effects of storage, and on flowability in order to avoid caking effects that would be a hindrance during application. For these test procedures especially the effects of humidity and moisture content are of interest, together with possible impacts on application in practice. The paper provides an overview of these new test procedures together with the main results for all common de-icing agents. To include economic aspects the costs of different de-icing agents are provided on the basis of the same thawing capacity, thus allowing a comparison of different de-icing agents. The decision criteria established and test procedures developed are currently under review and will be implemented in Austria Standards as solid base for future tenders and investment decisions
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Availability:
- Find a library where document is available. Order URL: https://www.piarc.org/en/order-library/25346-en-Proceedings%20of%20the%20XXVth%20World%20Road%20Congress%20-%20Seoul.htm
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Supplemental Notes:
- Abstract reprinted with permission of the World Road Association – PIARC.
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Corporate Authors:
World Road Association (PIARC)
La Grande Arche, Paroi Nord, Niveau 5
F-92055 La Defense Cedex, France -
Authors:
- Neuhold, J
- Hofko, B
- Hoffmann, M
- Nutz, P
- Blab, R
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Conference:
- 25th World Road Congress
- Location: Seoul , Korea, South
- Date: 2015-11-3 to 2015-11-7
- Publication Date: 2015
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Figures; Photos; References;
- Pagination: 9p
- Monograph Title: Proceedings of the 25th World Road Congress - Seoul 2015: Roads and Mobility - Creating New Value from Transport
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Deicing chemicals; Environmental impacts; Humidity; Moisture content; Winter maintenance
- Geographic Terms: Austria
- Subject Areas: Highways; Maintenance and Preservation;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01676783
- Record Type: Publication
- ISBN: 9782840604235
- Report/Paper Numbers: 0698
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Jul 26 2018 2:42PM