Evaluation of Liquid Deicing Additives for Winter Maintenance Applications

Date and Time: Tuesday, May 9, 2023: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: Keck 100

 

Lead Presenter:  Erin Lammers-Staats, Research Engineer
Affiliation:  University of Kentucky
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Lead Presenter Biography

Erin Lammers-Staats is a research engineer with the Kentucky Transportation Center’s Traffic & Safety program. Her research expertise includes occupant protection practices, work zone traffic control methods, geometric design and data management, and roadway surface treatment evaluations. Notable published works include a series of reports on roadway attribute database management, a case study about novel striping materials in work zones, and an evaluation of liquid deicing materials for winter maintenance applications. She also manages the state’s annual seatbelt usage rate survey in accordance with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Ms. Lammers-Staats holds a BS in Chemistry, a BS in Civil Engineering, and an MS in Civil Engineering, all from the University of Kentucky. She is a member of the Kentucky Section of the Institute for Transportation Engineers, where she is currently serving as chapter President. 

Co-Authors

Teng (Alex) Wang, Research Engineer, University of Kentucky

Presentation Description 

Building efficient winter maintenance programs is an ongoing effort for many state transportation agencies. With changing weather and new brine additives on the market, Kentucky was interested in reevaluating the deicing materials being used within their program. Performance of new brine additives are often unknown and there is very little guidance about how to systematically evaluate new additives.
This research developed a testing methodology that could be performed in a laboratory setting to evaluate an anti-icer’s ability to “undercut”, or break the bond between pavement and ice. Methodology was based on guidance from the Strategic Highway Research Program, modified to fit within Kentucky’s laboratory parameters and to mitigate common issues that had been encountered in past investigations. The test involved freezing blocks of ice on concrete, boring holes through the ice to insert dye-carrying liquid additives, and then measuring the area over which the ice-concrete bond was broken. In laboratory tests, one new additive clearly outperformed the others in terms of ice undercutting ability.
This research project also analyzed costs, ease of use, and environmental impacts of each product. The recommendation for a new product was reinforced by all aspects of the analysis. Kentucky practitioners are also now armed with the information and skills to perform their own testing on any other new products of interest. Incorporating this test and its resulting findings into transportation agencies’ systems provides the opportunity to create more informed and more efficient winter maintenance programs.

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