Review Reports - Simulation of Snow and Ice Melting on Energy-Efficient and Environmentally Friendly Thermally Conductive Asphalt Pavement

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Dear Editors of the Sustainability, and Authors. These are my suggestions for the correction of the Manuscript ID: sustainability-3841839.

Title: "Development of Thermally Conductive Asphalt Concrete with Composite Fillers for Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Snow Melting"

This article has innovative potential in the development of environmentally friendly snow removal and de-icing technologies. However, some parts have to be improved.

The article keyword “Electric Heat” should be consistent with the main text's “Electrical Heating”.
The abstract mentions that thermally conductive asphalt concrete technology reduces energy use and environmental damage. Which test data or analysis results in the article specifically demonstrate its advantages in terms of energy conservation?
The article proposes “the use of silicon carbide powder equal volume replacement of all mineral powders” (line 110), but does not specify the content of mineral powders in asphalt concrete.
The control group “ordinary asphalt concrete” (line 137) does not specify its exact composition.
The article is mixed “heating cord” (line 155), “heating cords” (line 160) and “heating wires”(line 210). Please standardize the format.
Section 3.1 describes that “Carbon fiber heating cord are embedded along the bottom surface of the TCAC layer, positioned 46 mm below its top surface”. What is the specific basis for selecting this burial depth?
Section 3.2 describes that “An ice layer was placed on the model surface under ambient conditions of -5°C and a wind speed of 3 m/s”, but the specific thickness value has not been specified. Please provide this parameter.
A more suitable title should be selected for Figure 5 instead of “Test results for different heating cord spacing”.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer:

Thank you very much for reviewing our manuscript and providing valuable comments and suggestions during your busy schedule. Your suggestions are of great significance in guiding our research work, and we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to you.We have addressed each of your questions and recommendations point by point in the attachment.Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Correct the section titles and the manuscript's structure according to the journal requirements.
The title and Abstract must clearly indicate the essence of the manuscript: a research article or modeling using ANSYS, because the title gives the impression of conducting experiments, which later becomes questionable when reading the work.
If the title of the manuscript sounds like “Development of Thermally Conductive Asphalt Concrete…”, then the Abstract and the Introduction must begin with questions related to asphalt concrete.
The purpose, objectives, and novelty of the manuscript must be indicated in the Abstract. In general, the novelty of the research is questionable.
At the end of the Introduction, the gaps in existing research and the purpose of the work that arises from these gaps should be clearly formulated.
In section 2 (the title should be Materials and Methods), information about all starting materials and their compliance with the requirements of regulatory documents must be provided. It is also necessary to provide the characteristics of the asphalt concrete obtained.
In section 2, brief information about the software should be provided.
The manuscript should give the modeling scheme (you can provide a figure from ANSYS).
At the beginning of section 4, it is necessary to justify the choice of such snow melting factors as heating cord spacing, wind speed, ambient temperature on asphalt concrete, and internal temperature distribution.
Lines 399-402. The authors state, “The accuracy of the model was verified by comparing it with experimental data …”. Separate/indicate the modeling results and experimental data in the experimental part. Indicate the modeling error, including in the Conclusions.
Provide information in the Conclusions about how the research corresponds to the topic of the journal (sustainability).
In the Conclusions, it is also necessary to indicate the novelty and limitations of the research.

Author Response

Dear Reviewers:

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper entitled "Development of Thermally Conductive Asphalt Concrete with Composite Fillers for Sustainable and Eco-Friendly Snow Melting" has potential to be interesting for scientific community.

In general, the text of the article is well written. There are some quite interesting research results, although in most cases the statistical description of the studies conducted is not noted. It is not noted how many samples were used in individual studies, etc. It recommends that basic statistical coefficients such as standard deviation or coefficient of variation be applied to the research results.

The research methods are solid, although in my opinion SEM analysis is missing to visualize the internal structure of the samples (I recommend this solution in the next article of this type). The presentation is technically correct, but there are some minor improvements that could be made. The interpretation of results is adequate.

Specific comments are as follows:

Title
The title clearly describes the article.

Keywords

Keywords are well pointed.

Abstract

The abstract is well written but:

Line 21 - please expand or explain the name "ANSYS"

Introduction
The introduction is interesting but should include more references to literature.

Materials and Methodology

The methods of research are solid but:

in chapter 2.1 there is a very poor description of the materials used; please elaborate on the materials used, where they come from, how they were prepared, etc.; please also explain whether Table 1 applies only to aggregate or all ingredients; it seems necessary to present the grain composition of this mixture in more detail.

Results and Discussion

Line 263–267 - Is this sentence correct?; it seems that increasing the power in the wires causes the melting point to be reached faster; it is probably better to describe it this way, as giving the freezing point can mislead the reader.
Line 319, 320 - It would be better not to name the column "Table" but "Case 1, 2..." etc.
Line 323-325 - Is this statement correct?; based on the table, it seems that as the ambient temperature increases, the stable surface temperature increases and the heating rate increases (not decreases); please explain this.
Line 331, 346 - the individual graphs are difficult to read; perhaps a better solution would be to place them vertically, one below the other on a larger scale.

Conclusions
The conclusions are quite accurate, they contain results. Conclusions should be bulleted; refer to numerical data. The conclusions are too general and widely known without doing thorough research - please expand on them. What's more:

Line 425 - instead of writing "wires' laying power" it is better to write "wires laying spacing".
in point 4 of the conclusions, it would be good to refer to percentage values defining the influence of wind or ambient temperature on the achieved stable temperature

References

The bibliography is not very extensive; it is advisable to expand it and include more references to literature in the text.

Author Response

Dear Reviewers:

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The manuscript has been improved.