Full Scale Testing of an Energy Harvesting Test Road Integrating Tubes

Abstract

Road construction companies are developing innovative road solutions which integrate new functions, such as the ability to generate energy. The authors focus here on the use of road solutions harvesting solar and geothermal heat energy. In 2014, PIARC’s report entitled “Alternative solutions for fossil fuels for the road system” listed the main limitations blocking the development of these innovations among which the resistance to traffic. The authors present a recent accelerated test at scale one of a pavement that incorporates geothermal tube networks in the first 10 cm of the pavement. The main goal is to assess the impact of the tubes on the durability of the overlay and structure. The first part of the paper describes the experimental site, located at the toll station of Saint Arnoult, next to the A10 highway, near Paris. It is composed of 4 trial sections. Tubes were buried at construction stage at 2 different depths. The second part presents the experimental setup: (i) the FABAC traffic simulator used for the tests and (ii) the survey methods used to follow the evolution of the structures. The third part present the measurements made during the tests and the fourth part is dedicated to the analysis of the results and conclusions.