Development of a Thermal Fatigue Test to Assess eRoads

ABSTRACT This paper presents the development of a thermal fatigue test for electric roads (eRoads). Indeed, the incorporation of an electric road system made of rigid steel rails and an elastomeric support into a conventional asphalt concrete pavement using a composite resin, necessitates an examination of their thermal behavior under various climatic conditions. These materials can locally affect heat storage, dissipation, and overall pavement performance, so it is essential to assess their impact to ensure efficient and sustainable road design. In this paper, a thermal fatigue test is set up. This test is designed to evaluate the behavior of eRoads under diurnal temperature variations. Its purpose is to evaluate the thermal behavior of the eRoad structure and identify sensitive areas, especially at the interface between the asphalt concrete and the electric charging system. To render this fatigue test viable for laboratory experimentation within a reasonable timeframe, it is conducted on eRoad samples under accelerated conditions. In this paper, initial experiments are conducted to establish the test protocol by simulating the sun under different climatic conditions. Loading parameters and boundary conditions are then defined in the test by adjusting the heights of the spotlight. A validation process was performed by comparing the experimental results with thermal-structural finite element simulations. This comparative analysis was used to confirm the accuracy of the thermal constitutive model, material parameters, boundary conditions, and loading conditions. These findings are applicable for the analysis and enhancement of eRoad designs at the field scale but also serve as a validation step to ensure the precision of mechanical field values sensitive to temperature variations in future thermoviscoelastic analyses.