Effect of eco-friendly pervious concrete pavement with travertine waste and sand on the heavy metal removal and runoff reduction performance

Abstract

To address the negative environmental and economic impact of the large amounts of solid waste generated during travertine mining and to reduce the dependence on natural aggregates and cement for pervious concrete pavement applications, travertine waste, as aggregate and powder, was used for the travertine powder pervious concrete (TPPC) to improve the utilization of solid waste and decrease CO2 emissions. The experimental results showed that using 25% travertine aggregate and 5% powder results in a compressive strength reduction of only 9.8% to 25.92 MPa but a significant improvement in water permeability of 57.1% from 3.89 to 6.11 mm/s. To improve the performance of TPPC, further research was done on the effect of sand addition rate (SAR) on TPPC's density, compressive strength, porosity, water permeability, freeze-thaw resistance and heavy metal removal capacity to obtain an optimal incorporation ratio. As SAR rises, the compressive strength of TPPC with sand (STPC) initially increases and then decreases, while permeability behaves inversely. At 3% SAR, the compressive strength reached a maximum of 26.51 MPa, primarily due to the sand added to fill in some of the pores and stabilize the gradation. After 25 cycles, the strength loss rate of STPC varies from 11.39 to 17.93% and the freeze-thaw resistance is most excellent when SAR is 3%. The removal rate of heavy metals using the immersion method was found to be significantly higher (83.4–100%) compared to the rapid method (11.7–28.1%). Therefore, the 3% SAR was recommended for the mixture design of STPC. A laboratory-scale version of the pavement was constructed to assess the efficacy of STPC pavement (STPCP) in reducing runoff and removing heavy metals. The results showed that STPCP could remove more than 94% of runoff with varying intensities after 1 h. The STPCP exhibited removal rates ranging from 42.0 to 99.4% for Cd2+ and 79.5–95.4% for Cu2+. STPCP also attained a removal rate above 98% for Pb2+ after 30 min, demonstrating its environmental friendliness.