Browsing by Subject "Snow and ice control"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    AirTAP Briefings (Fall 2021, vol. 21, no. 4)
    (Airport Technical Assistance Program (AirTAP) (Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota), 2021) Airport Technical Assistance Program (AirTAP)
    Articles include: Best management practices for snow and ice control; Click, click, click—Nothing! Pilot-controlled lighting tips and reporting; An airport’s story: Detroit Lakes–Becker County; FAA updates; MnDOT updates
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    Automated Vehicle Location, Data Recording, Friction Measurement and Applicator Control for Winter Road Maintenance
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation Research Services Section, 2010-02) Erdogan, Gurkan; Alexander, Lee; Rajamani, Rajesh
    The first part of this project conducted a detailed evaluation of the ability of a new friction measurement system to provide an accurate measure of road conditions. A system that records friction coefficient as a function of road location was developed using the same vehicle location measurement system as the current MDSS project. Studies conducted show that the friction measurement system provides a significantly more reliable measure of road surface conditions than does visual inspection. The second part of this project focused on a detailed evaluation of the performance of a closed-loop system that utilizes friction measurement for automatic applicator control. Experimental studies have shown that a friction measurement based zero velocity sander can adequately apply salt/chemicals to all slippery spots on a road at speeds up to 25 mph. The final part of this project focused on enhancement of the developed automatic applicator control system with utilization of real-time data from a geographical information system that provides information on upcoming geometric road alignment and known problematic segments of roadway. The developed friction measurement, data recording and applicator control system is compact, modular and can be used on both snowplows and pick-up trucks.
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    Detection of Water and Ice on Bridge Structures by AC Impedance and Dielectric Relaxation Spectroscopy Phase II
    (Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, 2013-08) Evans, John F.
    During Phase I of this project, we have carried out preliminary evaluation of a novel approach to low-cost sensing systems for monitoring ice, water and deicing solutions on road bridge deck surfaces. Our initial approaches included the techniques of alternating current impedance and dielectric relaxation spectroscopy of responses from simple passive metal sensors. These preliminary results indicated that the second approach of dielectric relaxation spectroscopy was far more promising. Furthermore, likely implementations would be significantly more economical using lower-cost electronics modules connected to passive sensors. Our choice for implementation of dielectric relaxation spectroscopy is based on the measurement of high-frequency components of pulse waveforms reflected from the sensor and using time domain reflectometry (TDR). The information content of these waveforms is strongly influenced by the dielectric properties of the media of interest (ice, water or aqueous solutions of deicing chemicals) in contact with or in close proximity (microns) with passive metal conductors, which comprise the sensor. These high-frequency dielectric relaxation measurements using TDR probe the physical state of precipitation and deicing chemicals on the deck or road surface by the detailed examination of the frequency response waveforms returned after the application of a fast rise-time excitation pulse. Signal processing of the acquired waveforms involves taking the derivative of the response followed by digital filtering and subsequent wavelet analysis to emphasize and distinguished low vs high frequency components of the waveforms reflected from the sensors. Determination of the state and nature of the precipitation, solutions or air in contact with a given sensor is made on a statistical basis via correlation of responses to calibration waveforms collected under known conditions for a given sensor. The software to carry out these signal processing tasks in implemented using LabVIEW.
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    Detection of Water and Ice on Bridge Structures by AC Impedance and Dielectric Relaxation Spectroscopy, Phases III and IV: Continued Field Testing and Refinement of Novel Water and Ice Sensor Systems on Bridge Decks
    (Intelligent Transportation Systems Institute, Center for Transportation Studies, 2013-08) Evans, John F.
    During Phases III and IV of this project it was determined that the physical attributes of the prototypes developed during the earlier work was inappropriate for bridge deck installations. Mn/DOT engineers required that they be planar and not require drainage through the deck. As RWIS platforms had been widely deployed on decks throughout the state, we decided to adhere to the RWIS geometric format. This necessitated a significant re-engineering of the sensor hardware before installation and testing at remote bridge sites could proceed. To that end extensive development of a robust sensor meeting these requirements was developed and tested without compromise to the earlier performance results. In large part the maintenance of performance was achieved through a significant modification of the software to include Wavelet analysis of the raw data in the determination of surface state of the sensor platform (ice vs air vs water vs electrolyte present on the sensing electrode structure). The combined regression results for raw TDR responses treated by three analysis procedures are shown to give rise to very reliable results. Unfortunately, remote field testing of sensors installed on bridge decks was not accomplished.
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    Estimation of Winter Snow Operation Performance Measures with Traffic Data
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2012-12) Kwon, Eil; Hong, Seongah; Kim, Soobok; Jeon, Soobin
    This research produced an automatic process to identify the road condition recovered times during snow events from the traffic-flow data. For this study, the traffic data from the past snow events were analyzed and the speed variation patterns indicating the road condition recovery states during the recovery periods were identified. The prototype process developed in this study finds the speed change point indicating the recovery of the road condition by analyzing the speed variations for a given location. The process was then applied to a set of the past snow events and the estimated recovered times were compared with the reported lane-regain time data.
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    Expanding Landowner Adoption of Snow Control Measures Through a Better Understanding of Landowner Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2019-12) Current, Dean; Motschke, Collin; Serra, Airton Jr.; Wyatt, Gary; Zamora, Diomy
    Previous research demonstrated the ability of snow fences to significantly lower both public and private costs related to the control of blowing and drifting snow. Follow-up research specifically addressed the knowledge of MnDOT staff and attitudes and practices related to the promotion and implementation of snow control measures. These efforts identified a need for a better understanding of landowners' knowledge, attitudes and practices related to snow control measures to develop more effective outreach and foster the adoption of snow control measures. We identified four regions of the state with highway corridors with snow problems. In each region, we carried out listening sessions with landowners and MnDOT personnel, and based on those sessions while applying the KAP (knowledge, attitudes and practices) methodology, we designed a landowner survey to explore landowner knowledge, attitudes and practices related to snow problems and the willingness of landowners to implement snow fences to address the problems. The survey was carried out once prior to an outreach effort and then again after the outreach effort to measure any changes in landowner knowledge, attitudes and practices resulting from the effort. We found that landowners were generally not aware of MnDOT's program to address snow problems and were able to identify constraints to adoption as well as incentives that might be required to promote adoption. We also identified the most acceptable channels for outreach to landowners as well as ways to better structure the MnDOT program to address constraints identified by landowners and provide the assistance and incentives needed to promote greater adoption.
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    Study of De-icing Salt Accumulation and Transport Through a Watershed
    (Minnesota Department of Transportation, 2017-12) Herb, William; Janke, Ben; Stefan, Heinz
    The accumulation of chloride in surface waters and groundwater from road deicing and other sources is a growing problem in northern cities of the U.S., including the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. To inform mitigation efforts, the transport of chloride in surface waters of a metro-area watershed (Lake McCarrons) was studied in this project to characterize chloride transport by surface runoff, the residence time of chloride in surface water, and how variations in weather influence chloride transport and accumulation processes. Monitoring work over three winters showed that the residence time of chloride in small, sewered watersheds varied from 14 to 26 days, depending on winter weather conditions, with 37 to 63% of chloride applied as de-icers exported in snowmelt and rainfall surface runoff. In contrast, a monitored highway ditch exported less than 5% of chloride applied to the adjacent road. Stormwater detention ponds were found to act as temporary storage for chloride, with persistent layers of high chloride content at the bottom. Chloride monitoring data and runoff simulations were used to explore the possibility of snowmelt capture as a chloride pollution mitigation strategy. We found that capturing snowmelt runoff close to source areas (roads and parking lots) yields the highest chloride concentrations and removal potential.