THERMAL DESIGN OF A HEAT PIPE SYSTEM FOR REMOVAL OF SNOW FROM ROOF TOP

ME 655
ENERGY CONSERVATION AND HEAT RECOVERY

SUBMITTED BY VINEET KUMAR MISHRA( 134103051)

Introduction
A heat pipe is a heat-transfer device that combines the principles of both thermal conductivity and phase transition to efficiently manage the transfer of heat between two interfaces. The most popular snow treatment method is removal and transportation, but snow melting methods such as road heating systems (hot water circulation type) have recently become popular in Japan. Also snow melting system using Thermal Energy Storage without water heating equipment using primary energy have been installed. Snow melting and Deicing are the recent area of application of heat pipe, one in which work in Japan has been particularly intense.

Motivation
With all these, accumulation of snow on the roof tops of the domestic and commercial building has been one of the worrying issues of the people and their governments. Heavy snow and ice accumulation coupled with the roof collapse due to its heavy weight keeps the residents in constant worry. What complicates the matter more is the melting of this mass cause water seepage, which can rot roofs, destroy insulation, flood attics, stain the ceiling, ruin gutters and damage the interior of the residents home. Snow removal and disposal are expensive winter activities that affect the quality of life and the environment in cities throughout the world. Over the years people have found out many solutions to deal with the roof snow. A few of them are;

Fig 1. Snow covered roof tops and exteriors

Fig 2. Snow load on roofs

People in the cold countries normally build their roofs in inclined fashion, so the snow falling on the roof doesnt stay their but slide because of its own weight. Again, there is a problem of formation of ice dams and damage of roofs and walls by water seepage. Residents of small and individual houses chose to remove it manually using roof rakes after every storm, which is simple and laborious, but could be dangerous, as sometimes their weight itself is enough to add with the snow load which impend a whole collapse of a structure.

 For the long term solutions and especially in larger commercial buildings, the roofs are normally covered with the anti-water repellent membrane, also insulating their attic firmly. It is also known that, people use de-icing agents to melt the snow and snow blowers. Other than these solutions, people also opt for electronic and electrical heating of the roofs, using newer and improved materials for the roof tops.

Fig 3. Ice dam formation and effects

Fig 4. De-Icing tapes, heating coils to melt ice

Literature Survey
Liu et.al, [1] claim the improvised version of Hydronic or electric heating of surfaces used in the prevention of ice formation and snow deposition by heating pipe system. Wang et.al, [2, 3] come up with a novel idea of road ice and snow melting based in low temperature geo-thermal tail water and Industrial waste water. They find out that it is feasible to utilize geothermal tail water about 40*C for melting of ice and snow on winter roads. Adachi [4] proposes a sprinkerless snow control system where water is lifted from a well using a pump from the subsurface of the water having a temperature greater than freezing from the earth and delivering the relatively warm water in to the conduit heat exchanger system positioned beneath an exterior surface to be protected from snow build-up. Sack et.al [5] studied a probabilistic model for roof snow loads and has developed a conditional probability of snow ice sliding through the roof as the function of temperature

 Danny Harvey [6] who studies about the cost information and energy efficiency states a provision of a high performance envelope as the most important in reducing heating loads and also as it permits alternative system for the crisis. Van Wagoner [7] proposes a protected membrane roofing system for insulating the interior of a building from ambient thermal cycling and for insuring water impermeable integrity of the roofing membrane. Jelle [8] suggests self-cleaning surfaces with origin in photocatalytic hydrophilic surfaces, super hydrophobic or ultra hydrophobic surfaces and coarse microstructure or nanostructured surfaces which can deal with snow accumulations. Groll [9] gives a review on the status of heat pipe technology in Western Europe with special emphasis on its research work and applications.

References
[1] Xiaobing Liu, Simon J. Rees, Jeffrey D. Spitler, Modeling snow melting on heated pavement surfaces. Part I: Model development. Applied Thermal Engineering, 27 (2007) 11151124. [2] Huajun Wang, Jun Zhao, Zhihao Chen, Experimental investigation of ice and snow melting process on pavement utilizing geothermal tail water. Energy Conversion and Management, 49 (2008) 15381546. [3] Huajun Wang, Zhihao Chen., Study of critical free-area ratio during the snow-melting process on pavement using low-temperature heating fluids. Energy Conversion and Management, 50 (2009) 157165. [4] Adachi, Method and apparatus for Sprinklerless snow control. Patent Number: 4,693,300. [5] Sack R L., Arnholtz D., Simulating uniform roof snow loads. Computers & Structures, Vol. 30. No 3. pp. 503-510, 1988. [6] L. D. Danny Harvey, Reducing energy use in the buildings sector: measures, costs, and examples. Energy Efficiency, 2 (2009) 139163.

[7] John D. Van Wagoner, Thermally efficient, protected membrane roofing system. Patent number: 4,719,723. [8] Bjorn Petter Jelle., The challenge of removing snow downfall on photovoltaic solar cell roofs in order to maximize solar energy efficiencyResearch opportunities for the future. Energy and Buildings, 67 (2013) 334351. [9] Groll M., Heat pipe research and development in Western Europe Heat Recovery Systems & CHP Vol. 9. No 1. pp. 19-66. 1989.