PSI - Issue 73

Ivan Kolos et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 73 (2025) 58–65 Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2025) 000 – 000

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of these structures, which requires careful attention in their design and maintenance. To mitigate this problem, accurate monitoring of the microclimate around roads is essential for the development of robust and resilient infrastructure. Existing research has investigated various aspects of this problem. For example (Vacek et al., 2023) conducted field experiments to quantify salt deposition near roads and correlate it with average corrosion rates and sulphur dioxide concentrations. Their work provides valuable empirical data for understanding the direct effect of de-icing salts on material degradation. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has become a powerful tool for analysing the transport of de-icing salts. (Lottes & Bojanowski, 2013) used CFD to simulate the complex process of salt mist formation from truck tyres and its subsequent deposition on bridge girders. This numerical approach provides information on the underlying mechanisms that control salt transport, allowing the development of targeted mitigation strategies. (Liu & Ahmadi, 2005) further extended the use of CFD and used k- ε turbulence models to simulate airflow and Lagrangian particle tracking to analyse the dispersion and deposition of vehicle exhaust particles on bridge surfaces. Their study highlighted the significant influence of wind turbulence and gravity on particle deposition rates and emphasised the importance of considering these factors in bridge design. The effect of local topography on salt deposition was investigated by (Suto et al., 2017), who combined CFD simulations with statistical analysis to estimate the spatial distribution of sea salt in the air. Their findings showed that salt concentration decreases with distance from the coast and is significantly affected by topographic characteristics and onshore winds. This approach can be adapted to model road salt transport considering the specific terrain around the roads. The complex dynamics of spray generation from vehicle wheels was addressed by (Hu et al., 2015), who used numerical simulations to model droplet breakup and coalescence. Their study elucidated the relationship between vehicle external flow and body fouling and provided valuable information on the mechanisms of salt aerosol generation. In addition to vehicle-generated spray, (Joung & Buie, 2015) investigated the interaction of droplets with porous media and revealed phenomena important for aerosol generation in the environment. Their research is important to understanding the long-term deposition and retention of salt particles on bridge surfaces. Practical applications of these studies can be seen in the work of (Obata et al., 2014), which focused on preventing bridge degradation due to sea salt and compared numerical simulations with field observations. This comparative approach verifies the accuracy of numerical models and their usefulness in the design of effective protection measures. Finally, the work of (Vargas Rivero et al., 2022) demonstrates the potential of real-time simulations to assess the impact of water mist on automotive sensors. Their approach highlights the increasing sophistication of simulation tools and their potential to predict the behaviour of salt mist under different environmental conditions. In summary, the combination of insights from experimental studies and numerical simulations provides a comprehensive understanding of the complex interactions between de-icing salts, vehicle dynamics, and environmental factors. This knowledge is essential for the development of durable and resilient infrastructure that can withstand the corrosive effects of de-icing salts and ensure long-term safety and sustainability. This paper focusses on a numerical analysis of the transport of water sprayed from the road to the near and far surroundings by passing two trucks in different wind directions. 2. Methods 2.1. Numerical model The calculation takes into account the possibility of future comparison with the results of the in situ measurement (Vacek et al., 2024). The road section of the place where the measurement is taking place is shown in Fig. 1. The length of the cut is 60 metres, the slope of the ground body is approximately 25°. Sensors to measure the amount of chloride deposits are located at three distances from the road. The distances are 5 m, 9 m and 13 m from the point where the terrain begins to slope. The numerical analysis of the flow field of two trucks is performed in the ANSYS Fluent 2023 R2 software, with calculations performed on a high-performance 128-core computer. This road cut is used for the creation of the computing domain for a model in which the flow field is solved, and it has been evaluated at the three positions corresponding to the in situ placement of the sensors (sampling planes in simulations).