Design, Simulation, and Verification of a Heating and Stirring Device for Cold Patching Materials in the Plateau Cold Region of China

In the plateau cold region of China, the highway maintenance line is long, the maintenance fund is insufficient, the annual average temperature is low, the air is thin, the temperature difference between day and night is large, and the freezing and thawing cycle is frequent and intense. These conditions lead to the poor highway maintenance in the cold region of the plateau. At present, cold patching materials are commonly used for daily maintenance in the plateau cold region. Due to the low-temperature construction environment in the plateau cold region, the moisture of cold patching materials after demulsification is not easy to evaporate, the compaction effect is weak, re-freezing and thawing easily occur after the temperature rises, and the maintenance quality is low. In order to avoid the restriction of season and weather on highway maintenance in plateau cold areas and to solve the problem of poor maintenance and construction quality of cold patching materials in plateau cold areas in low temperature environment, this paper proposes a scheme of heating emulsified asphalt cold patching materials to a certain temperature and then constructing it, and designs a heating and stirring system, a constant temperature control system, a control system circuit and other parts according to the scheme requirements, finally completing the overall design of the heating and stirring device. Then, working parameters such as stirring motor power 2 kW and stirring speed 30 r/min are determined through theoretical calculation. To verify that the design is reasonable, we established a 3D model of the heating device by using ANSYS CFX fluid analysis software. Simulation analysis was carried out on the heating device, and the design parameters were optimized. On the basis of optimized parameters, production equipment of heating device prototype, and prototype field experiment, field experiment results show that the simulation and experimental results are in good fit and that the design parameters are reasonable. The results of this study can serve as a reference for highway maintenance in cold highlands.