Seebeck effect influence on joule heat evolution in electrically conductive silicate materials

In general, silicate building materials are non-conductive matters that are not able to evolve heat when they are subjected to an external voltage. However, the electrical conductivity can be increased by addition of electrically conductive admixtures in appropriate amount which leads to generation of conductive paths in materials matrix. Such enhanced materials can evolve Joule heat and are utilizable as a core of self-heating or snow-melting systems. In this paper, Joule heat evolution together with Seebeck effect in electrically conductive silicate materials was taken into consideration and the model based on heat equation with included influence of DC electric field was proposed. Besides, a modeling example of heating element was carried out on FEM basis and time development of temperature in chosen surface points was expressed in order to declare ability of such system to be applicable.