Icy roads – a global challenge for all, without exception, motorists who live in countries where there are cold seasons. Appearance of ice on the surface of the asphalt can lead to dire consequences for drivers and passengers. Most in this case are dangerous so-called “black ice” when the temperature difference between air and road surface occurs a thin ice film, and the driver seems to be that before it’s just a little damp asphalt. A team of researchers from Turkey has offered its own solution to this problem.
Usually with icy roads fight one of several classic methods. Scatter salt, corrosive ice, or roads sprinkled with sand to increase the adhesion between the surface and the wheels of the cars. The disadvantages of these methods are obvious: salt and sand is quickly swept from the surface of the passing cars. Will not help these methods and in conditions of heavy snowfall, when at least posipal the road, though not posipal, and good of it many will not. Although in such conditions the road is hardly something will help.
Turkish scientists from the University of Koch has developed a special multi-layered asphalt containing a special component potassium salt. It acts on the surface of the road gradually, destroying the ice. This solved the problem with the traditional application of salts to the surface of the roadway. Asphalt alone will rid yourself of icing and when the car wheels will erase the top layer of the road, the outside will make the next layer of the salt component. Another feature included in the composition of asphalt is styrene-butadiene rubber, which will also inhibit the formation of ice film on the road.
The only drawback is protected from ice road is nedruzhelyubstvo to cars. Potassium salt like any other salt, can lead to corrosion of the car body. Scientists have published the results of a two-month test of the new asphalt in the conditions of formation of an ice crust, and carefully studied the wear resistance of the new pavement. Now they have yet to explore its impact on the metal part of the car. It is expected that such asphalt for the first time will be on roads of Turkey in the next few years.