Dynamic heat load calculation of a bridge anti-icing system

Road icing poses a serious threat to traffic safety in winter. Active anti-icing is one of effective methods to solve this problem. An inverse heat conduction method was developed to identify the dynamic heat load of the bridge cable heating system. One regularized functional was established based on Tikhonov regularization theory and solved by an iterative method. The results showed that the heat load calculated was not just the sum of heat loss at the top surface and bottom surface of a bridge. There are time lag and amplitude attenuation between the heat load and heat loss of the bridge. The inverse heat conduction method was validated by the direct heat transfer numerical simulation. Based on the maximum heat load results, ON-OFF algorithm and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control algorithm were implemented. The simulation results showed that the temperature of bridge surface was greater than 0 °C and indicated that the theoretical derivation of heating load and control logic is suitable for bridge anti-icing system.