Thermal performance of developed coating material as cool pavement material for tropical regions

Abstract

The amount of solar energy emitted back from conventional asphalt pavement contributes to the phenomenon of urban heat island (UHI), and the current work was focused on studying the thermal behavior of asphalt pavement developed as a coating material from wasted tile. The surface temperature of asphalt surface with and without coating material for ambient temperature and underground soil temperature was studied. Results showed that the application of developed coating materials could reduce the surface temperature of asphalt pavement up to 4.4°C. Rainfall also played a significant role as a natural coolant during the experimental run by maintaining the surface temperature continuously for 2 days after the rainfall event, with an average surface temperature of 41.9°C. The underground soil temperature of the coated surface showed reduction in the range of 0.8-1.2°C throughout the day. The coating materials achieved their efficiency in reducing the emitted radiation only during noontime and the results show that the developed coating materials have true potential to serve as cool pavement to combat UHI effects.