Solar Heat Reflective Coating for Sidewalks Considering Cooling Effect, Anti-Skid Performance, and Human Comfort

Abstract The solar heat reflective coating for sidewalks (SHRCS) is investigated in the present article. Compared with the reflective coating for the traffic lane, the reflective coating for the sidewalk has low requirements for abrasion resistance but high requirements for human comfort. Therefore, cooling characteristics, anti-skid performance, abrasion resistance, and sports performance are chosen to assess SHRCS. SHRCS consists of three layers, the bottom layer, the elastic layer, and the surface layer. The materials of the three layers were determined. Particularly, because the surface layer is composed of resin, functional materials, and pigments, the suitable surface resin was chosen from five kinds of resin, and the Taguchi orthogonal array design method was used to determine the optimal mix ratio of the surface layer materials. The in situ test shows that the surface of the road using SHRCS can be cooled by 5.9°C versus the original road surface. The temperature difference of the skin surface between standing on the coated and uncoated road can reach 1.6°C. In the end, the sports performance characteristics of SHRCS, such as the vertical ball rebound, were tested.