Experimental Study of Pervious Concrete Pavement

Abstract

Pervious concrete pavement is air and water permeable, the soil underneath can be kept wet and rainwater can quickly filter into ground, allowing groundwater resources to renew in time. Pervious concrete also possesses many other advantages including sound absorption and skid resistance and is therefore suitable for use in Taiwan's rainy and humid environment. However, the prevalence of air voids result in low strength, so pervious concrete has not been suitable for use in surfacing roads with heavy traffic loadings. In this study the authors sought to determine the suitable mix of cement, silica fume, superplasticizer, steel fiber, course aggregate and so on for a pervious concrete pavement strong enough for road surfacing. The results showed that the compression strength of one pervious concrete core specimen from the simulated field site was up to 275.7kgf/cm2 and exceeded the ordinary concrete structure specification. The flexural strength of one pervious concrete sawed specimen from the simulated field site was up to 48.11kgf/cm2 and exceeds the highway rigid pavement specification (45 kgf/cm2). Four mixtures were trialed with void contents ranged from 18.8 to 31.9% and densities from 1,890 to 2,034 kg/m3. The field permeability testing method developed for asphalt pavements has been found to work well for pervious concrete. Water penetration was very good with field permeability test showing about 1,100ml/15sec. This study of the simulated field pervious concrete pavement will be valuable for highway design and construction.