SALT FOR ROAD DE-ICING
All salts lower the freezing point of water. Salt prevents the snow to bound to the asphalt. Common road salt can lower the temperature to -21 degrees C at most. In practice, you use road salt down to -10 degrees C. If it is colder, road salt is not needed because the friction is high enough.
Road salt, or de-icing salt is most commonly Sodium Chloride. It is the cheapest and most manageable available. One has tried to find other salts, but not succeeded. Other chloride-containing salts are 5-6 times more expensive and more difficult to handle. Non-chloride containing salts are 15-20 times as expensive.
No, you should plow / shovel / brush away the snow, then you salt to prevent costly damage to vehicles or accidents that hurt people or animals
There are two methods.
1. ANTI-ICING
Spread salt brine over the road before the snowfall. This prevents ice bounding to the pavement. If there is a need for plowing, it is easy to remove the snowslush from the road.
2. DE-ICING
If road isn't pretreated, the snow removal is done by plowing. However, in many cases the snow sticks to the pavement. Thefore De-icing salt is used by the plowing truck to melt the remaining snow.
There are three ways to spread salt.
1. Solution; 23% saline.
2. Pre-wet; Before the dry salt is applied on the road by the spreader, a salt brine is sprayed directly onto the salt.
3. Dry salt; In the event of heavy precipitation, you can spread only dry salt.
When the wet salt hits the cold road surface the salt grains stick to the road and do not bounce off the road. It has been shown that the pre-wet technique saves a lot of money.
Snowfighters Club
State name, e-mail and phone number please.
Snowfighter, In this section articles and presentations will be available. Technical data and Diagrams.
- Which salt melts snow best?
- Is there any environmental alternatives?
- How chemistry behind road salt works.
- "Snowfighter's" tough day-to-day work and how to fight slippery roads, benefits of ANTI-ICING and DE-ICING.
- The three different spreading techniques.
ANTI-ICING
DE-ICING
Anti-icing is a proactive process, ie you act before the snowfall. The method involves spreading brine on the road to prevent the snow or ice "freezing" against the pavement.
Different studies show that the cost can be reduced significantly and that the salt consumption can be reduced by a factor of four by acting preventing.
De-icing is done when the snow has already bounded to the pavement. The salt must penetrate the packed snow. It is necessary to use pre-wet salt or dry salt. You should not spread brine as it only exacerbates the situation and can even become less friction.
The result of brine spreading:
- The road is restored quicker to a dry road surface.
- Reduces accidents and traffic delays.
- Cost savings when using less salt.
- The environment is not adversely affected.
- Less man hours to maintain the roads.
The result of de-icing:
- The grain size of the must have a certain size to be able to penetrate the packed snow.
- To break the bounding and then plow away the hard crust.
- Pre-wet salt sticks more easily to the road than dry salting.
A "black" road pavement after snowfall.
Traffic has packed the snow which bounded to the pavement. Plowing isn't enough to obtain a save pavement.
ANTI-ICING
Anti-icing is a proactive process, ie you act before the snowfall. The method involves spreading brine on the road to prevent the snow or ice "freezing" against the pavement.
Different studies show that the cost can be reduced significantly and that the salt consumption can be reduced by a factor of four by acting preventing.
The result of brine spreading:
- The road is restored quicker to a dry road pavement.
- Reduces accidents and traffic delays.
- Cost savings when using less salt.
- The environment is not adversely affected.
- Less man hours to maintain the roads.
DE-ICING
De-icing is done when the snow has already bounded to the pavement. The salt must penetrate the packed snow. It is necessary to use pre-wet salt or dry salt. You should not spread brine as it only exacerbates the situation and can even become less friction.
The result of de-icing:
- The grain size of the must have a certain size to be able to penetrate the packed snow.
- To break the bounding and then plow away the hard crust.
- Pre-wet salt sticks more easily to the road than dry salting.
A "black" road pavement after snowfall.
Traffic has packed the snow which bounded to the pavement. Plowing isn't enough to obtain a save pavement.