Heating Deck Design and Analysis On the 41St Street Pedestrian Bridge

Chicago has one of the fastest-growing bicyclist populations in the country and is constantly installing new bike infrastructure throughout the city limits, whether it is bike lanes, bike racks, or DIVVY stations. Chicago is always looking to promote an eco friendly way to commute. One additional way to both promote and accommodate the growing number of bicyclists is by adding an exclusive bicycle and pedestrian bridge to the existing infrastructure. Doing so emphasizes the focus on a more efficient and safer commute, while also providing an additional route for bikers. In order to promote biking and safety throughout the winter months it would be ideal to have a path with conductive concrete, which would heat the pavement and allow snow or ice to melt. Conductive concrete can be activated by adding additional materials, known as phase change materials (PCM) within the concrete mixture, such as paraffin wax, which would allow the concrete to become heated in cold temperatures. The main objective of this project is to design and analyze a heated deck on the newly-built 41st street pedestrian bridge located in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. The goal is to analyze the effectiveness of the proposed heated deck on the 41st street bridge by using a finite element model analysis. Another goal is to show the effectiveness of the heated deck in order to promote biking throughout the winter months.