Researchers from Drexel University Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Purdue University West Lafayette, Indiana, and Oregon State University Corvallis, Oregon, USA, have made a discovery that could create roads that melt off ice and snow during winter storms. Their secret? â Adding a little paraffin wax to the roadâs concrete mix. To test its snow and ice-melting ability, the team created a set of concrete slabs:
- Slab One: with paraffin-filled pipes inside
- Slab Two: containing porous lightweight aggregate that had been infused with paraffin
- Slab Three: reference slab without paraffin
Each was sealed in an insulated container and then covered with about five inches of lab-made âsnowâ. Both of the paraffin-treated slabs were able to completely melt the snow within the first 25 hours of testing, while the snow on the reference sample remained frozen. Video shows time lapse of snow melting of Slabs One and Two …
For the article on the research associated with this video titled “Wax On, Melt OffâAdding Paraffin to Concrete Can Help Roads Clear Themselves in The Winter”, please click on the adjacent article on the ISCP home page, or go to:Â https://www.concretepavements.org/2017/09/19/wax-on-melt-off-adding-paraffin-to-concrete-can-help-roads-clear-themselves-in-the-winter/.