Fifteenth Annual

C of I   S T U D E N T   R E S E A R C H

C O N F E R E N C E

Saturday May 16, 2020

Multimodal Characterization and Testing of Heat-Reflective Coatings to Mitigate the Urban Heat Island

AUTHORS: Molly Vitale-Sullivan and Aidin Golrokh
FACULTY: Dr. Yang Lu- outside faculty member
DEPARTMENT: Civil Engineering

ABSTRACT

The Urban Heat Island (UHI)—urban areas higher in temperature than rural counterparts—is exacerbated by the large proportion of pavement surfaces in urban areas. Heat-Reflective Coatings (HRC) are being developed to cool pavements for UHI mitigation. Six HRCs were evaluated to determine changes in surface temperature and to understand cooling mechanisms based on microstructure-property-performance architecture. Integrated multimodal characterization approaches, including engineering performance tests, spectroscopy and microscopy, were used to: 1. Determine the micro/nano scale heat reflection mechanisms; 2. Compare the heat reflection performance; 3. Inspire the design and optimization of new cool pavement coatings. During engineering performance tests, coated concrete samples underwent heating and cooling cycles where the surface, atmospheric, and subsurface temperatures were recorded using an infrared thermal camera, a thermometer and thermocouples, respectively. Performance testing results clearly demonstrated an overall decrease in surface temperature for coated samples compared to uncoated concrete. Ultraviolet-Visible-Near-Infrared and Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometers were used to quantify solar and thermal reflectance. HRCs had significantly higher reflectance in the visible and near-infrared range compared to uncoated concrete. Scanning Electron Microscopy of HRCs revealed the presence of nanoparticles of varying size and morphology. Results indicate the potential for HRCs to mitigate the UHI by cooling pavement surfaces.

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