The Fundamentals of Plowing, Anti-Icing, De-Icing and Sanding Webinar
- The Fundamentals of Plowing, Anti-Icing, De-Icing and Sanding
- 06/06/2019
Presenter(s)
Alex Klein-Paste
- Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Abstract
This webinar will cover the fundamental aspects of snow plowing, the use of anti-icing and de-icing chemicals and the use of sanding. It starts by giving a brief overview of processes that cause slippery road conditions and how winter maintenance actions prevent or treat these conditions. The first, and probably most important, piece of equipment in winter maintenance is the snowplow. We go into the physics of snow flowing into a plow, and describe the main properties a plow can have, the effect of driving speed, and additional features that can enhance plowing efficiency. The next topic for this webinar is anti-icing. We discuss how anti-icing chemicals physically work and why different anti-icers have different performance. Continuing with de-icers, we look into how de-icers melt ice and discuss the difference in melting performance between solid and liquid de-icers. The last topic of this webinar is sanding, also known as gritting or abrasive application. We go into how friction is created between rubber tires and snow/ice covered roads, and how hard (sand) particles can improve the friction level. The work presented here was co-authored by Rune Dalen, former salesmen and product developer at Aebi-Schmidt Norway AS, a company that develops snow plows, among other winter maintenance equipment.
Speaker Bio(s)
Alex Klein-Paste is a Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering where he teaches maintenance and operations of roads in cold climates. He leads of the Norwegian Winter Maintenance Research Center and has conducted research on anti-icing and de-icing chemicals. His main interest is the understanding of how anti-/de-icing chemicals work physically in their interaction with snow and ice.
