Solar hybrid road: from concept to modeling and lab scale mock-up experiments

Abstract

International audience; We present in this paper the concept of solar hybrid road and the numerical model studied and develop to compute its thermal state at any time step. The aim of these new structures is to collect part of the solar radiation during the summer period, to prevent from icing at the surface during the winter period. As it is reversible, it will help also to prevent from a too high structure temperature (in particular closed to the surface) in summer season. Two types of modifications, compared to traditional structures are presented. The first one concerns the insertion of a porous layer allowing a heat fluid to exchange thermal energy. The second one concerns the use of a semi-transparent material at pavement surface allowing the solar radiation to penetrate deeper in the structure. The numerical model of this multi-physics problem develop with the finite element method is presented and discussed. A validation on two test cases is proposed. First results on energy harvesting evaluation for few locations (i.e. climatic conditions) in France are presented and discussed. Finally, conclusion and perspectives are proposed.

Document type: Conference object