Outdoor experiment of flexible sandwiched graphite-PET sheets based self-snow-thawing pavement

Abstract In this article, thin flexible sandwiched graphite-PET sheets (GPSs) with 10 μm thick graphite interlayer as self-heating element are developed and reveal a desirable electrical resistance and an excellent mechanical flexibility. Employing these promising properties, a GPS-based self-snow-thawing pavement system is proposed with GPSs adopted as a high efficient electro-heating element. Powered by the alternative energies (grid power or solar energy), the snow-thawing experiments are implemented at the outdoor site under the impacts of multi-parameters (ambient temperature, wind speed, snow density and thickness and input power). The temperature distributions of pavement, feasibility, time/energy efficiency and economic cost are systematically evaluated through snow-thawing experiments. With advantages of desirable feasibility, high efficiency, long-term stability, low economic cost and environmental protection, the GPS-based self-snow-thawing pavement is verified promising potential in snow-thawing applications.