EP2299001A1 - Procédé d'application automatique et précise d'un agent antigel - Google Patents

Procédé d'application automatique et précise d'un agent antigel Download PDF

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Publication number
EP2299001A1
EP2299001A1 EP09170843A EP09170843A EP2299001A1 EP 2299001 A1 EP2299001 A1 EP 2299001A1 EP 09170843 A EP09170843 A EP 09170843A EP 09170843 A EP09170843 A EP 09170843A EP 2299001 A1 EP2299001 A1 EP 2299001A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
spraying
parameters
nozzle
monitored surface
nozzles
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP09170843A
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German (de)
English (en)
Inventor
Taisto Haavasoja
Seppo Kaarto
Ilmari Sikander
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Destia Oy
Original Assignee
Destia Oy
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Destia Oy filed Critical Destia Oy
Priority to EP09170843A priority Critical patent/EP2299001A1/fr
Publication of EP2299001A1 publication Critical patent/EP2299001A1/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
    • E01—CONSTRUCTION OF ROADS, RAILWAYS, OR BRIDGES
    • E01H—STREET CLEANING; CLEANING OF PERMANENT WAYS; CLEANING BEACHES; DISPERSING OR PREVENTING FOG IN GENERAL CLEANING STREET OR RAILWAY FURNITURE OR TUNNEL WALLS
    • E01H10/00—Improving gripping of ice-bound or other slippery traffic surfaces, e.g. using gritting or thawing materials ; Roadside storage of gritting or solid thawing materials; Permanently installed devices for applying gritting or thawing materials; Mobile apparatus specially adapted for treating wintry roads by applying liquid, semi-liquid or granular materials
    • E01H10/005—Permanently-installed devices for applying gritting or thawing materials, e.g. for spreading grit, for spraying de-icing liquids

Definitions

  • the invention relates to an antiskid treatment for road surfaces using a specific apparatus for applying an anti-freeze agent.
  • places are more critical than others in terms of skidding.
  • these places are found in locations where microclimatic changes take place, i.e. where air masses of different temperatures are likely to meet.
  • Such places include for example bridges, mouths of tunnels, airport runways, entryways and highway ramps and, for bicycle and pedestrian traffic, for example footways.
  • Publication US 2005/0072859 describes a kind of an anti-freeze agent spraying apparatus.
  • the nozzles have been provided waterproof so that water is not able to access the interior of the spraying housing in any situation.
  • a set of valves has been installed inside the spraying housing. These valves allow separate control of each nozzle.
  • the nozzles are mounted in socket parts on the road so as to be embedded below the road surface level.
  • certain weather sensors such as the use of temperature sensors, a moisture meter, an anemometer and video image, is also mentioned. These are used real-time to control the valves of the nozzles.
  • a main problem of the known technology is that the use of the nozzles in a spraying system has not yet been controlled intelligently, utilizing anticipation and direct slipping measurements as well as the sparing use of the anti-freeze agent.
  • the objective of the invention is to disclose a novel intelligent method and apparatus for spraying anti-freeze agent on road surfaces.
  • One specific objective of the invention is to alleviate the problems referred to above.
  • the present invention discloses a method for applying anti-freeze agent over a monitored surface by a spraying apparatus, wherein the apparatus comprises at least one nozzle, a fluid container, a pipeline between the fluid container and the nozzles and control logic for the apparatus.
  • the method is characterized in that it comprises the steps of:
  • the monitored surface is a traffic way.
  • the method further comprises the steps of:
  • the method further comprises the steps of:
  • the method further comprises the steps of:
  • said operation mode is an operation mode preset according to black ice, snowfall, subcool rain, rush hour, quiet traffic or night-time, providing periodically or non-recurrently, for each nozzle and as a function of time, a control signal that determines the activity of the nozzle.
  • the method further comprises the steps of:
  • the method further comprises adjusting the spraying angle, the opening diameter and the supply pressure of the agent in the desired nozzles.
  • the method further comprises the steps of:
  • a system for applying an anti-freeze agent over a monitored surface by a spraying apparatus comprising at least one nozzle, a fluid container and a pipeline between the fluid container and the nozzles.
  • the system further comprises at least one warming element for warming at least one nozzle, respectively, to ensure that the nozzles stay unfrozen in all conditions.
  • the system further comprises a control room which can be contacted from the technical room to transfer the measurement parameters and control commands between them.
  • the system further comprises a separate weather station arranged to measure the above-mentioned parameters continuously or at the desired times.
  • the system further comprises at least one camera for taking a photographic image of the monitored surface at the desired times, wherein the received image signal is within a desired frequency band.
  • the inventive idea further comprises a computer program for applying anti-freeze agent on a monitored surface by a spraying apparatus comprising at least one nozzle, a fluid container, a pipeline between the fluid container and the nozzles and control logic for the apparatus.
  • the computer program comprises program code which, when run on a data-processing device, has been arranged to execute the steps of:
  • the advantage of the present invention is that it allows intelligent, anticipatory and automatic control of an anti-freeze agent spraying system so that the monitored road surface stays free from ice.
  • the intelligence of the control takes into account the weather parameters, history data, time of observation, traffic situation, and further ensures anticipatorily that the nozzles stay unfrozen. These characteristics have not been accomplished in any corresponding manner in the prior art.
  • the usefulness of the invention consists in the fact that by measuring the ratio of ice and water on the road surface, the application of the anti-freeze agent may be limited only to situations where the risk of slippery roads becomes too high, and on the fact that this procedure allows one to optimize the consumption of the anti-freeze chemicals to a minimum.
  • the present invention discloses a method for intelligent application of anti-freeze agent on a road surface by a specific spraying apparatus.
  • the objective of the invention is to keep the road unfrozen in all situations so that friction of the road surface is sufficiently high in terms of grip in different weather and temperature conditions.
  • a weather station 10 may be disposed at a suitable site on the roadside, containing devices which monitor the road surface and the weather.
  • the weather station 10 may include a camera, a thermometer for the temperature of the road surface and the air, a hygrometer to determine the dew point, an anemometer and a precipitation gauge, or only some of these measuring devices.
  • a camera refers broadly to a device which is able to receive information over different wavelength ranges and, where necessary, over other than the visible light range. This device allows one to monitor the color of the road surface over the selected frequency bands so as to be able to detect water or ice on the road surface.
  • So-called dry calibration may be performed in advance to determine the color of the road surface for example in a dry cold weather during daylight.
  • the difference between the color of the road surface and the reference color from the calibration over the suitably selected frequency bands it can be determined when there is water or ice on the road surface. Since the reflective properties of water and ice differ clearly from each other, a good estimate of the change of the color (or, more broadly, the received signal) relative to the reference is obtained for the quantities of ice and water on the monitored surface, taking into account the changes of lightness as well as the changes of the basic road surface asphalt color at different sites.
  • the above-mentioned reference data may be used to determine the relative ratio of the quantities of ice and water, which may be used directly to determine the potential skidding at the time of observation.
  • this kind of camera may also be used to determine the type of precipitation, i.e. whether the precipitation is water, snow or sleet.
  • the camera provides visual information about the general weather and for example about the degree of visibility.
  • the camera may operate over the visible light or the infrared radiation range.
  • a traditional camera that operates over the visible light range is by no means necessary for the functioning of the invention.
  • One or more containers 11 containing the employed anti-freeze agent may be disposed at an appropriate site on the roadside or in a separate technical room 18 (which is described in more detail below).
  • about 50% potassium formiate solution is used as the agent, but the use of other concentrations and for example an aqueous solution containing sodium chloride or calcium chloride is also possible.
  • the pipes 12 are dimensioned longitudinally so that sufficient fluid pressure can be provided for the nozzles 13 to produce a jet that reaches sufficiently far.
  • the jet range in a preferred embodiment is about 3.5 to 4 meters from each nozzle.
  • the pipes 12 are installed slightly below the road surface level so that there is no risk of the pipes below the roadway becoming exposed due to formation of wheel tracks.
  • the flow rate from one nozzle is about 60ml per second.
  • fine-distributed jets i.e. a relatively low flow rate per nozzle.
  • a technical room 18 constitutes an essential feature, accommodating part or all of the data processing logic required by the invention.
  • the technical room may accommodate a server 14 which may be connected through an Ethernet connection to a radio transmitter 15.
  • the server 14 is thus preferably connected to the outside world through the internet.
  • the radio transmitter 15 uses a 450MHz operating frequency. It is by all means possible to use some other operating frequencies or technologies as well.
  • the required computation and control may thus be distributed, if desired, between the computer 14 in the technical room and an external computer (for example a computer in a "control room" which is described in more detail below).
  • the technical room 18 also accommodates a separate logic unit 16 that functions as the actual controller between the server 14 and the anti-freeze agent supply apparatus 11.
  • a router 17 which additionally provides a fiber connection to the monitoring devices that further monitor the road surface.
  • the router 17 may also have a proper radio connection.
  • Provided from the technical room 18 is also voltage feed to separate power supply modules 19 to be disposed on the roadside and transferring electrical energy to the cameras as well as to other elements that need to be powered, such as the weather station 10 and the optional pumps or valves.
  • one or more fluid containers 11 containing the anti-freeze agent are specifically disposed inside the technical room 18, wherein the outward fluid supply is controlled by the logic unit 16. Also other alternative techniques, devices and routings between them can be used to provide the functionalities of the above-described technical room.
  • a telecommunication connection for example to the premises of a system administering party (such as the above-mentioned control room), wherein the monitoring data from the site of the apparatus, for example in the form of camera images, temperature data and status data of the apparatus (whether the apparatus is switched on or off at the time of observation; whether any parts have been damaged; and other functional parameters) can be transferred to the administering party.
  • a system administering party such as the above-mentioned control room
  • this allows remote control of the system. It can be, for example, arranged so that the apparatus normally operates automatically using the technical room internal control process, but when a problem or a fault situation emerges, a notification is sent to the control room. From the control room, it is also possible to manually issue a control command for switching the spraying on or off if automatic control does not for some reason function as desired.
  • the key feature in the control of the spraying apparatus is anticipation; the anti-freeze agent can start to be sprayed before any ice has even formed on the road surface.
  • the anti-freeze agent can start to be sprayed before any ice has even formed on the road surface.
  • Another key feature is the sparing and optimized spraying, i.e. the anti-freeze agent is sprayed only when it is necessary.
  • the essential idea is the control of the spraying nozzles, which is performed intelligently.
  • the weather station provides information about the weather, the temperature on the road surface as well as in the air at the time of observation, and also about the variation trend of the above-mentioned variables, meaning in this context the rate of temperature change.
  • information is provided about the quantities of water and ice and their relative ratio on the road surface. These can be combined with an estimate about the development of the weather and the temperature in the near future, issued from weather reports. Start conditions for activating the spraying may be set for the control logic of the apparatus.
  • a start condition may for example state that temperature at the time of observation sinks below +3 degrees, the temperature trend is descending, the weather report forecasts frosty weather and the road surface is wet at the time of observation, either from earlier precipitation or as determined by the dew point measurement.
  • Another example of a start condition for activating the spraying may be that the quantity of ice exceeds a preset threshold value in the ice-water mixture on the road surface.
  • the conditions for the control logic may be set before the apparatus in brought to use, or they may be changed later in situ at the technical room or remotely from the control room.
  • the control logic selects the program which best corresponds to the conditions according to the measurement data from the weather station.
  • An example may be a situation of a heavy snowstorm where it is not appropriate to keep the spraying apparatus active at all because, in this case, it is simply not possible to melt the snow with the anti-freeze agent.
  • a rush-hour program As to the above use of programs, it is possible to apply for example "a rush-hour program", "a quiet traffic program” or "a night-time program” in the invention.
  • the anti-freeze agent distributing effect of the traffic can be taken into account, so that the required amount of the anti-freeze agent may be reduced.
  • quiet traffic combined with increased probability of slippery roads may be taken into account.
  • the weather station may be set to carry out monitoring in a faster cycle than usually, or the spraying operation may be switched on more readily than in the "normal program".
  • the nozzle 20 to 25 comprises six spraying directions as can be seen from Fig. 2 .
  • the figure represents an example of one nozzle as seen from different directions in cross-sectional view.
  • the anti-freeze agent can be directed circularly sufficiently evenly in different directions.
  • the anti-freeze agent spraying angle as viewed upwardly from the ground plane can also be adjusted, where necessary, by varying the direction angle of the slope 26 next to the opening 27.
  • the fluid pressure as well as the flow rate of the nozzle can also be measured.
  • the essential variable is the duration of the spraying.
  • the spraying may be carried out as a non-recurrent operation which is switched on and off only once; another alternative is to carry out the spraying in pulses for the desired period of time.
  • the spraying switch-on time may be adjusted and, similarly, the length of breaks between spraying periods may be specifically set.
  • particular nozzles may be specifically selected from the set of nozzles to spray the anti-freeze agent.
  • each of the nozzles may be controlled separately so as to provide even more precise controllability to the application of the agent.
  • the amount of fluid applied by the nozzle absolute or in view of the application rate
  • the active state of the nozzle may be freely adjusted.
  • the control logic determines whether the spraying apparatus must be switched on again with a given program.
  • the objective is to utilize the constant monitoring of the road surface and the automatic control of the spraying apparatus to ensure safety of the road surface from the skidding perspective as well as possible.
  • the measurement parameters from the weather station and the spraying apparatus use data parameters from the control logic may be collected in a log file specific for each site over a desired period.
  • the log file may be saved for example on the computer in the technical room so as to be accessible to the control logic.
  • the log data may be further used for improving the operation of the control logic, i.e. the intelligence of the apparatus. The longer the period of time for which the apparatus has been used at a certain site, the more useful is the log data for optimization of the spraying.
  • the nozzles of the spraying apparatus may be installed for example between the traffic lanes in the case of a two-lane road or on the shoulder barrier in the case of an undivided road.
  • the nozzles are embedded in the road so that their upper surface does not deviate significantly from the road surface level.
  • the nozzle and the supply pipeline may be installed in a hole and a track on the road surface, and, after installation of the nozzle apparatus, the void left in the hole may be filled with suitable filling material.
  • the apparatus comprises a warming element in the immediate proximity of each nozzle, respectively.
  • the warming element may be a self-adjusting warming cable or a thermal resistance, the operation of each of them being controlled separately.
  • the warming cable may be installed below the nozzle in the form of a coil. The objective of the warming is to ensure that the nozzles stay unfrozen in all weather conditions.
  • a temperature sensor is installed in the immediate connection to each nozzle, wherein the sensor is able to measure the temperature at the opening of the nozzle without the optional external warming element being able to warm the sensor directly.
  • the method of controlling the spraying nozzles according to the present invention may be carried out as a computer program stored on a computer-readable medium.
  • the computer program may be run, in a preferred embodiment, by the processor of the computer disposed in the technical room. Another alternative is to run the computer program on an external computer used for the control.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Architecture (AREA)
  • Civil Engineering (AREA)
  • Structural Engineering (AREA)
  • Traffic Control Systems (AREA)
EP09170843A 2009-09-21 2009-09-21 Procédé d'application automatique et précise d'un agent antigel Withdrawn EP2299001A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP09170843A EP2299001A1 (fr) 2009-09-21 2009-09-21 Procédé d'application automatique et précise d'un agent antigel

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP09170843A EP2299001A1 (fr) 2009-09-21 2009-09-21 Procédé d'application automatique et précise d'un agent antigel

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP2299001A1 true EP2299001A1 (fr) 2011-03-23

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EP09170843A Withdrawn EP2299001A1 (fr) 2009-09-21 2009-09-21 Procédé d'application automatique et précise d'un agent antigel

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Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2014112897A1 (fr) * 2013-01-15 2014-07-24 Общество С Ограниченной Ответственностью "Современные Транспортные Технологии" Procédé et dispositif de traitement anti-verglas des revêtements routiers et aéroportuaires
RU2673193C1 (ru) * 2017-11-30 2018-11-22 Общество с ограниченной ответственностью "Комплексные Инженерные Решения" Способ автоматической обработки дорожного покрытия противогололедным реагентом и система для осуществления способа
EP3972877A4 (fr) * 2019-09-08 2023-05-31 Floe, Inc. Système et procédé de dépôt de fluide

Citations (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6102306A (en) * 1998-10-16 2000-08-15 Odin Systems International, Inc. Multifunctional flush surface nozzle
US20050072859A1 (en) 2003-10-06 2005-04-07 Energy Absorption Systems, Inc. Anti-icing spray assembly

Patent Citations (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US6102306A (en) * 1998-10-16 2000-08-15 Odin Systems International, Inc. Multifunctional flush surface nozzle
US20050072859A1 (en) 2003-10-06 2005-04-07 Energy Absorption Systems, Inc. Anti-icing spray assembly

Cited By (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2014112897A1 (fr) * 2013-01-15 2014-07-24 Общество С Ограниченной Ответственностью "Современные Транспортные Технологии" Procédé et dispositif de traitement anti-verglas des revêtements routiers et aéroportuaires
RU2524199C1 (ru) * 2013-01-15 2014-07-27 Общество С Ограниченной Ответственностью "Современные Транспортные Технологии" Способ и устройство для проведения противогололедной обработки дорожных и аэродромных покрытий
RU2673193C1 (ru) * 2017-11-30 2018-11-22 Общество с ограниченной ответственностью "Комплексные Инженерные Решения" Способ автоматической обработки дорожного покрытия противогололедным реагентом и система для осуществления способа
EP3972877A4 (fr) * 2019-09-08 2023-05-31 Floe, Inc. Système et procédé de dépôt de fluide

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