Fracture and fatigue study of pervious concrete with 15–20% void ratio

Abstract

Pervious concrete has been increasingly used all over the world to reduce the amount of rain water runoff and improve the water quality near light-traffic-volume pavements and parking lots, but its use in India is a relatively unexplored territory. The use of pervious concrete in high-load roads (HLR) requires a balance between the permeability and strength, as increasing the permeability by increasing porosity ends up in reducing the strength. Hence, there is a perceived need for pervious concrete mixture with optimum mechanical and hydraulic properties for use in HLR. In the present study, an attempt was made to determine that combination of aggregate size, water:cement (w/c) ratio and amount of supplementary cementitious material that would provide the best possible hydraulic and mechanical properties. The cement used was 53-grade Ordinary Portland Cement. Results were measured as flexural strength, compressive strength (both measures of mechanical properties), void ratio, porosity and permeability (as three measures of hydraulic properties). The mix with highest compressive strength and void ratio ranging between 15% and 20% was considered optimum and tested for fracture–fatigue. The results indicated that high-strength pervious concrete (i.e., compressive strength 32–45 MPa and flexural strength 3.9–5.29 MPa at 28 days of curing) can be achieved even with void ratio (%) of more than 15%).