Nearly 30 participants from Barcelona to L’Aquila tackled real-world energy challenges, including renewable infrastructure problems central to the project’s goals.
The ENHANCE Europe project presented a technical challenge at the eleventh Iberian Modeling Week, held at the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica in Barcelona, from July 7 to 11, 2025. The workshop brought together students from across Europe to work on industrial mathematics problems, including one directly connected to developing renewable energy infrastructure for the built environment.
ENHANCE Europe aims to develop field-scale systems that collect and convert solar energy absorbed by road surfaces into thermal energy for domestic heating and hot water production. The technology embeds energy harvesting systems in road pavements beneath thin-layer asphalt wearing courses, reducing dependence on fossil fuels while integrating with existing building infrastructure across diverse European contexts.
The mathematical challenge presented to workshop participants addressed a core engineering question: asphalt solar collectors embed fluid pipes in roads to harvest heat, but longer or denser pipe layouts increase flow resistance, raising pressure drop and pump energy use. Participants received physical parameters including pipe diameter, length, layout options (serpentine versus spiral configurations), fluid properties (water with temperature-dependent viscosity), and solar radiation data. The goal was to analyse different pipe configurations and flow strategies to identify setups offering the best balance between heat collection and pumping efficiency.
Roger Carrillo, a high school student participating in the Joves i Ciència program, worked on this ENHANCE Europe problem during his two-week internship with CRM’s Knowledge Transfer Unit. His stay coincided with the first week of the Iberian Modeling Week, allowing him to join the working group addressing the asphalt collector optimisation challenge.
Carrillo worked alongside master’s students in mechanical engineering, physics, and chemistry. The team analysed heat transfer through pavement materials, modeled fluid dynamics in embedded tube networks, and evaluated trade-offs between thermal energy capture and system efficiency. “There was so much different knowledge in our group,” Carrillo explained. “Nobody knew everything, but together we could understand the whole problem.”
The collaborative work required integrating concepts from thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and infrastructure engineering. Optimal configurations depend on thermal conductivity through asphalt layers, flow patterns, installation feasibility, and integration with existing infrastructure. Mathematical models allow researchers to predict system performance before field installation, supporting ENHANCE Europe’s goal of standardizing technologies across different European climates and building types.
David Romero, director of CRM’s Knowledge Transfer Unit, emphasized the value of working with real engineering constraints. “This kind of activity puts students in touch with problems that aren’t polished or prepared for a textbook. They’re raw, they’re real, and that forces them to think.”
On the final day, Carrillo’s team presented their findings, explaining optimized tube configurations, thermal efficiency calculations, pressure drop analyses, and recommendations for system design. The work provided insights into how different layout strategies affect the net energy balance of solar pavement systems.
For ENHANCE Europe, the workshop participation served multiple purposes. The mathematical modeling work contributes to the project’s scientific knowledge base, developing improved analytical methods for thermal harvesting optimisation. Engaging students like Carrillo also demonstrates how the project’s technical challenges can connect with emerging researchers at different educational levels.
The collaboration between ENHANCE Europe and the Iberian Modeling Week exemplifies how European research projects can integrate with educational initiatives to advance both scientific objectives and capacity building. The asphalt solar collector problem represents one component of ENHANCE Europe’s broader work developing integrated energy management systems that operate efficiently across diverse European contexts.
Carrillo’s second week at CRM involved working on biomedical modeling problems with other Joves i Ciència participants. His experience with the ENHANCE Europe challenge during the Modeling Week provided direct exposure to how mathematical research translates into applications for Europe’s energy transition.
The Iberian Modeling Week was organised by CRM in partnership with math-in (Spain) and PT-MATHS-IN (Portugal).