PURPOSES : Snow-removal performance is performed in this study to assess the feasibility of replacing calcium-chloride solution with sodium chloride solution at the minimum temperature of -5 ℃ during snowfall. METHODS : The atmospheric temperature distribution in Seoul was analyzed. The manufacturing, storage, and indoor melting performance of calcium-chloride and sodium-chloride solutions were evaluated, and on-site snow-removal performance was evaluated based on the solution type. RESULTS : According to the results of the melting performance test at -5°C, the melting capacity of the sodium chloride solution was expressed at a level exceeding 90% of that of the calcium chloride solution, indicating a similar melting performance between the two solutions. Additionally, based on the snow removal performance test using aqueous solutions, the snow removal performance of the sodium chloride solution was found to be approximately 96% compared to that of the calcium chloride solution, indicating minimal differences in snow removal performance due to changes in the type of solution. CONCLUSIONS : Similar snow-removal performance was achieved when the sodium chloride solution was used instead of calciumchloride aqueous solution at temperatures exceeding -5 ℃.

PURPOSES : The number of snowfall and the amount of snowfall are gradually increasing, and due to the characteristics of Seoul, which has a lot of traffic, it is difficult to respond quickly with a snow removal method that relies on snow removal vehicles. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an IoT based eco-friendly snow removal system that can respond to unexpected heavy snow in winter. In this study, the low temperature operation and snow removal performance of the IoT road condition snow removal detector and the snow removal system using CNT and PCM are evaluated in the climatic environment chamber. METHODS : To make artificial snow, it consists of an climatic environment chamber that can simulate a low temperature environment and equipment that can supply compressed air and cold water. Depending on the usage characteristics of the climatic environment chamber, use an air-water type snow maker. In order to make artificial snow, wet temperature, which takes into account the actual air temperature and the amount of moisture in the air, acts as the most important variable and is suitable for making snow, below –1.5 ℃. The lower the water temperature, the easier it is to freeze, so the water source was continuously supplied at 0 ℃ to 4 ℃. One of the two different pipes is connected to the water tank to supply water, and the other pipe is connected to the compressor to supply high-pressure air. Water is dispersed by compressed air in the form of many small droplets. The sprayed microscopic water particles freeze quickly in the low temperature environmental climatic chamber air and naturally fall to the floor, forming snow. Based on the KS C IEC 60068-2-1 cold resistance test standard, an integrated environmental test procedure was prepared to apply to IoT-based snow removal systems and performance evaluation was performed accordingly. The IoT based eco-friendly snow removal system is needed to in winter, so visual check and inspect the operation at the climatic chamber before setting up it to the actual site. In addition, grid type equipment was manufactured for consistent and reliable snow removal performance evaluation under controlled environmental conditions. RESULTS : The IoT-based eco-friendly snow removal system normally carried out the task of acquiring data and images without damaging the appearance or freezing in a low temperature environment. It showed clear snow removal performance in areas where PCM and CNT heating technology were applied to the concrete slab. This experiment shows that normal snow removal tasks can be carried out in low temperature environments in winter. CONCLUSIONS : The integrated environmental test procedures and grid type evaluation equipment are applied to low temperature operation and snow removal performance evaluation of snow removal systems. In the climatic environment chamber, where low temperature environments can be simulated, artificial snow is created regardless of the season to derive quantitative experimental results on snow removal performance. PCM and CNT heating technology showed high snow removal performance. The system is expected to be applied to road site situations to preemptively respond to unexpected heavy snow in winter.

PURPOSES : Recently, corrosion and deterioration of highway facilities have been increasing owing to the excessive use of deicers. This study aimed to find an optimal snow removal method to develop countermeasures for the problem of excessive deicer use and improve the efficiency of snow removal. METHODS : Theoretical investigations and experiments related to deicing were conducted to determine the differences between deicing chemical types and states. Based on regional weather patterns, the entire country was categorized into four groups: warm and heavy snow, warm and light snow, cold and heavy snow, and cold and light snow, and matched with each regional office of the Korea Expressway Corporation. RESULTS : Optimal snow removal methods were proposed considering regional characteristics and deicing chemical types and states. CONCLUSIONS : Different deicer types were proposed according to the region type, such as using only salt and salt/calcium chloride in the warm and cold regions, respectively. Second, plowing was more effective at lower temperatures. Third, liquid deicer spraying could reduce the amount of deicer used. A liquid deicer is suitable for preliminary spraying because its quick-acting properties are superior to those of a solid deicer, although its lasting properties are inferior to those of the solid deicer.

PURPOSES : Snow removal is one of the principal components in winter road maintenance. The two commonly used methods are mechanical removal and chemical removal. Mechanical removal pushes accumulated snow off the roadway using snow plows. Chemical removal involves the application of chemicals such as NaCl2 (salt), CaCl2, MgCl2, etc., to liquefy the snow on the road. However, chemicals are known to pose negative effects on the environment and road infrastructure, so it is emphasized that only an appropriate amount of chemicals should be applied. Hence, in this study, extensive field experiments were performed to determine the appropriate amounts of chemicals required for each road surface temperature group. METHODS : The experiments were carried out at a road weather proving ground, located in Yeoncheon where road weather (including snowfall) can be artificially created. Four surface temperature groups were predetermined, according to the characteristics of de-icing chemicals on snow. For each temperature group, four different amounts of pre-wetted salt were applied to find the optimal rate for each group. RESULTS : As a consequence, the amount of recommended chemicals for each temperature group was found to be an average of 27.2g/ m2, which is 7.7g/m2 (22%) lower than the corresponding amount presented in the current Korean guidelines. CONCLUSIONS : Applying the results of this study to snow and ice control tasks enables the minimization of the negative impacts of de-icing chemicals, but still maintaining road safety and mobility.

PURPOSES : The actual service life of repair methods applied to cement concrete pavement is analyzed based on de-icing agent usage. METHODS : Highway PMS data pertaining to de-icing agent usage are classified into three grades: low (1~5 ton/lane/year), medium (5~8 ton/lane/year), and high (greater than 8 ton/lane/year). The repair methods considered include diamond grinding, patching, joint repair, partial depth repair, and asphalt overlay on five major highways. The service life of each repair method is analyzed based on the usage level of the de-icing agent. RESULTS : The service lives of the applied repair methods are much shorter than expected. It is confirmed that the service life afforded by diamond grinding, patching, and joint repair methods are not significantly affected by the use of de-icing agents, whereas that afforded by asphalt overlay and partial depth repair methods is affected significantly. The service life afforded by the asphalt overlay and partial depth repair methods decreases at high usage levels of the de-icing agent (greater than 8 ton/lane/year). CONCLUSIONS : Among the repair methods considered, the service life afforded by partial depth repair and asphalt overlay is affected significantly by the amount of de-icing agent used. Additionally, the differences between the expected and actual analyzed service lives should be considered in the next-generation maintenance strategy for cement concrete pavements.

PURPOSES : This study was conducted to prevent road thinning ice caused by abnormal weather conditions. METHODS : The appropriate amount of de-icer spread rate was verified by presenting the appropriate amount of snow removal agent spraying criteria for the thickness of the water film, owing to abnormal weather phenomena (fog, frost), and applying the standards to the site. Furthermore, we present a method to utilize residual salt, by quantifying the surface state changes according to the amount of deicer. RESULTS : Precautionary spread experiments to prevent road thin ice caused by abnormal weather conditions, indicated no freezing from 7.6g/m2 at 2℃-4℃ but 11.1g/m2 was suggested as a step higher considering external environmental variables. The amount of spraying was presented in two sections of rainfall(freezing rain). It is 17.7g/m2 at 0-7℃, 33.3g/m2 at -7~ -15℃, and 44.4g/m2 and 51.1g/m2 at non-urban, respectively. CONCLUSIONS : The criteria were divided into air temperature and road temperature standards, so that they could be distributed according to the temperature standards that meet the conditions, and the criteria presented were confirmed to be effective in preventing road thinning ice. If the road manager adopts Safety Line, which is suggested by utilizing the amount of residual salt on the road, it is believed that it can help determine the additional deicer.

PURPOSES: The intensiveness of highway management has increased owing to the growth in the number of vehicles and the rapid climate change. The disadvantages produced by these factors can affect management time and cost. Serious traffic accidents and traffic jam may be experienced when snow fall accumulates on highway surfaces and the friction between tires and pavements is lower than that in the general state, in a non-management condition. Such conditions need intensive management. In this regard, one of the spread methods used for the melting material is pre-wetted salt (PWS), which is the frequently used method in South Korea. In the PWS method, the solid material with CaCl2 is mixed with water in 30% concentration and then finally mixed with NaCl before application to pavements. The chloride-type melting material not only is cheaper, but also has a high melting property than the others. It can shorten the pavement or structure life by deterioration and corrosion. This melting material can affect the flora near the highways; hence, an eco-friendly de-icing agent must be utilized considering the environmental effect. METHODS : The Kalman filter algorithm (KFA) was utilized herein to develop optimization models using the performed test data. The KFA, which was developed from recursive filter algorithms, such as the low- and high-pass filters, applies a weighting filter to the Kalman filter. The algorithm has the property of utilizing the filter and updated estimations. In this regard, melting tests were performed for the real applicative utilization of de-icing agents. The KFA was also applied to reduce the error rates and optimize the relationships between the test data and the predictions. RESULTS: Comparing the measurements performed, the error was reduced by 1.69 g when the KFA was applied. Moreover, the error can be optimized to approximately 91.4% compared to the test errors. The prediction data had over 85% tendency in the test measurement, showing that the KFA application can reduce the error and increase the tendency. By comparison, the agent with CaCl2 showed the best ice melting performance within 10 min without surface temperature. However, the PWS with a 25% concentration indicated the best water melting performance from start to end of the test time, implying that this is a powerful agent in terms of performance. CONCLUSIONS : The melting test is an artificial test method; therefore, it can generate a huge error from the test. The error and the tendency can be controlled by tracking the measurement error and the white noise matrix using the KFA. A further research will be performed to track the measurement error and the white noise matrix. Other optimization methods will also be applied to reduce the experimental error.

Deicing agent refers to the substance that melts snow by exothermic or endothermic chemical reaction after spraying on snow. It also has the function of reducing the freezing point to prevent freezing. However, the long-term use of deicing agent can cause some negative problems, such as pot hole, concrete corrosion, vehicle and steel bridge parts corrosion. At present, wet salt spray deicing is a cost-effective deicing method that is being widely used. Typical deicing agents are calcium chloride and sodium chloride. Deicing equipment is placed to similar or higher corrosive environment than coastal or marine environment due to direct contact to chloride in deicing operation. Therefore, the anti-corrosion control is very important for the maintenance of deicing equipment. In this study, corrosion resistance, blistering and repairability of the deicing equipment were tested by using test standard (salt water production and spraying- KS D 9502 , evaluating degree of rusting- ASTM D 610, evaluating degree of blistering- ASTM D 714, pull-off strangth of coatings- ASTM D 4541). And an economical coating system with long-term antirust performance was constructed. The results show that the performance of the coating system has been improved than with the original coating.

PURPOSES: This study evaluates the efficiency of snow removal operation resources using data envelopment analysis (DEA). The results of this study can help decision-making strategies, especially for resource allocation for snow removal works on national highways. METHODS: First, regional road management offices (DMUs) for efficiency evaluation were set up, and a database (for years 2012-2016) for analysis was formed. Second, DEA was carried out by selecting input and output variables based on the constructed database. Lastly, based on the results of the DEA, the efficiency of each regional road management office was evaluated. In addition, the potential for future improvement was determined. RESULTS: The results showed that there was a large variation in efficiency of snow removal operation resources by regional offices. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study imply that the evaluation of efficiency for snow removal operation resources is important when decisions related to snow-removal strategies are made by road management offices.

PURPOSES :This study evaluates the reasonableness of the recommended amount of deicing chemicals based on historical data for snow removal. The result can be used to aid decision-making for the reservation of cost-effective de-icing chemicals.METHODS :First, the recommended amount of de-icing chemical to use and historical usage data were evaluated to identify specific usage characteristics for each region. Road maintenance length and snow-removal working days were analyzed over the past five winter seasons. Next, differences in the recommended amount of chemical to use and actual use were compared using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Last, the two types of data were analyzed using a chi-square test to verify if the two distributions of variation pattern are statistically significant. We found that there are significant differences between the data from each region during the past five winter seasons.RESULTS :The results showed that the equation for calculating the amount of de-icing chemical to use appears to be revised.CONCLUSIONS :The results imply that the equation for calculating the amount of de-icing chemical to apply as a national standard is very important when the public agency makes decisions related to snow-removal.

PURPOSES : In this study, systematic road snow-removal capabilities were estimated based on previous historical data for road-snowremoval works. The final results can be used to aid decision-making strategies for cost-effective snow-removal works by regional offices. METHODS: First, road snow-removal historical data from the road snow-removal management system (RSMS), operated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, were employed to determine specific characteristics of the snow-removal capabilities by region. The actual owned amount and actual used amount of infrastructure were analyzed for the past three years. Second, the regional offices were classified using K-means clustering into groups “close”to one another. Actual used snow-removal infrastructure was determined from the number of snow-removal working days. Finally, the correlation between the de-icing materials used and infrastructure was analyzed. Significant differences were found among the amounts of used infrastructure depending on snowfall intensity for each regional office during the past three years. RESULTS: The results showed that the amount of snow-removal infrastructure used for low heavy-snowfall intensity did not appear to depend on the amount of heavy snowfall, and therefore, high variation is observed in each area. CONCLUSIONS: This implies that the final analysis results will be useful when making decisions on snow-removal works.