Omid Habibzadeh-Bigdarvish

University of Texas at Arlington | UTA · Department of Civil Engineering

Deicing on bridge deck surfaces is essential to ensure the safety and mobility of motorists during severe winter weather. Conventional snow/ice removal chemicals such as salt cause bridge corrosion and provoke environmental issues. Therefore, a new external geothermal heating system for bridge deck deicing and snow melting has been proposed, which...

A comprehensive understanding of the heat transfer mechanism of hydronically-heated structures is crucial to predicting their heating performance. However, few studies considered the heat transfer at the interface of heating pipe and host material. In this paper, heat transfer at two critical interfaces for hydronically-heated concrete structures,...

a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Thermal demands Bridge deck de-icing Attached hydronic loops Heated bridge deck Heat flux analysis a b s t r a c t Geothermal heating of bridge decks is a reliable and sustainable method for bridge de-icing that has been increasing in demand since conventional de-icing methods were proved to be environmentally hazard...

Meteorological and subsurface factors influence pavement’s response to cold fronts. Prediction of pavement temperature, particularly icing, is important to winter pavement maintenance which relies on an estimated time for the formation of ice. However, the prediction development is limited by test data on pavement icing. A model column consisting o...

An external hydronic heating system utilizing geothermal energy is an innovative new method to de-ice in-service bridges that avoids detrimental environmental effects and damage to bridge deck structures stemming from chemical deicers and mechanical traction materials (e.g., sand). However, in these systems, the bottom surface of the bridge deck is...

In recent years, a geothermal heat pump de-icing system (GHDS) has been introduced as an alternative for conventional snow and ice removal systems (CSRS). Application of the CSRS for bridges highly prone to ice formation is not a satisfactory solution as it has a negative impact on the environment, bridge deck condition, motorist safety, and travel...

An external geothermal bridge de-icing system deploys hydronic loops covered in insulation and attached to bridge decks to heat the bridge using geothermal energy. Several studies were performed on the laboratory system under controlled temperatures and showed promising results for field deployment. However, no field tests or investigations of its...

Vertical U-tube borehole heat exchangers (BHE) are commonly utilized to harvest shallow geothermal energy. As the BHEs are the most critical component, affecting the overall energy efficiency of ground source heat pump systems (GSHPs), it is essential to investigate the performance of BHE. In this study, the numerical modeling of a 132.5 m U-tube B...

The utilization of geothermal energy for melting snow and ice on bridge decks has been shown to be effective. However, the existing geothermal heating systems work through hydronic loops embedded inside the bridge deck and therefore are only applicable to new bridges. A new external geothermal heating design for bridge de-icing has been explored in...

Heated bridge using CO2 heat pipe with geothermal energy as its heating source is a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to conventional chemical de-icers, which corrode the bridges and pollute the environment. However, in previous studies, the heat pipe was embedded in the bridge deck for heating and is only applicable to new bridg...

Hydronically heated bridges, whose shallow geothermal energy is extracted from underground loops, are often used for bridge deicing. However, the existing heated deck designs employ embedded pipe loops, which are only applicable to new bridges. A new externally heated hydronic bridge deck has been developed for existing bridges. Heating tests of th...

Recent developments of energy piles and soil borehole thermal energy storage have increased the concern of the behavior of soils under thermal loads. Laboratory heating and cooling tests of soils are subject to the ambient temperature effect due to inadequate thermal insulation. Thus, the test data are prone to errors due to such boundary effects....

In recent years, the geothermal heat pump de-icing system (GHDS) is introduced as a sustainable solution for bridge deck de-icing, which utilizes renewable geothermal energy. Existing GHDS designs mostly rely upon hydronic loops embedded in concrete decks. To extend the GHDS for existing bridges, a new external hydronic deck has been developed rece...

Coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) processes are of great importance to geothermal, hydrology, and geotechnical engineering applications. There is a lack of laboratory testing apparatuses to measure the THM processes under controlled true 1-D heating conditions. This paper develops a modified 1-D heat soil cell for the study of THM processes. Th...

Transportation infrastructures suffer major damage from ice and snow each year, negatively affecting the U.S. economy. Bridges, a key element of the transportation network, are the most vulnerable to impairment from ice and snow. The conventional snow and ice removal system (CSRS) is not a satisfactory solution, as it causes additional problems rel...

Thermo-active diaphragm walls have proved their effectiveness in the thermal conditioning of buildings and infrastructures. However, some aspects still need to be investigated in order to tailor methods and tools for an accurate prediction of their energy and structural performance. In this perspective, some issues are addressed that concern the de...

The thermo-active diaphragm walls represent a solution that permits the exploitation of near-surface geother-mal energy for the thermal conditioning of buildings and infrastructures. Preliminary studies showed that some time-dependent thermal conditions, such as the thermal input at the inlet of the heat exchanger pipes and the temperature at the e...

Modeling the wastewater treatment plant is difficult due to nonlinear properties of most of its different processes. Due to the increasing concerns over environmental effects of treatment plants considering the poor operation, fluctuations in process variables and problems of linear analyses, algorithms developed using artificial intelligence metho...

The thermo-active diaphragm walls are traditional retaining structures that embed heat exchangers for the exploitation of the near-surface geothermal energy, used in the thermal conditioning of buildings and infrastructures. In this thesis, a thermo-active diaphragm wall is numerically analyzed based on input monitored data and all the aspects of i...