Laboratory Assessment of the Infiltration Capacity Reduction in Clogged Porous Mixture Surfaces

Valerio Andrés-Valeri,Filippo Giustozzi,Luis Sañudo-Fontaneda,Mariana Marchioni,Gianfranco Becciu

doi:10.3390/su8080751

Valerio Andrés-Valeri, Filippo Giustozzi + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su8080751

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Abstract

Permeable pavements have been used widely across the world to manage urban stormwater. The hydrological behaviour of permeable surfaces is a complex process affected by many factors, such as rainfall intensity, rainfall duration, pavement geometrical conditions, and clogging level of the permeable surface, amongst others. This laboratory study was carried out to assess the influence of clogging level and rainfall intensity on the infiltration capacity of porous mixture surfaces used in Permeable Pavement Systems (PPS). Porous Concrete (PC) and Porous Asphalt (PA) mixtures with different air void contents (15%, 20%, and 25%) were subject to different clogging scenarios by using varying sediment loads (0, 500, and 1000 g/m2). Permeability experiments were carried out for each clogging scenario through a new rainfall simulator specially developed, tailored, and calibrated for the laboratory simulation of a wide range of rainfall events. Permeability measurements were taken under all different scenarios as a result of the combination of the different rainfall events (50, 100, and 150 mm/h) simulated over the specimens of porous mixtures and the sediment loads applied to them. The results showed that the PC mixtures tested perform better than the PA ones in terms of infiltration capacity, showing less potential for clogging and being more easily cleaned by the wash-off produced by the simulated rainfall events.

Highlights

The progressive urban sprawl during the last decades has worsened the problems related to stormwater management in urban areas [1]
The discharge times obtained through the permeability tests carried out on Porous Concrete (PC) and Porous Asphalt (PA) samples (Table 2) showed that clogging has an important impact on the infiltration capacity of porous mixtures
Reductions in the infiltration capacity of between 63% and 93% were found for PA mixtures and of 57% to 93% for PC mixtures, depending on the quantity of sediments deposited and the mixtures’ air void content

Summary

Introduction

The progressive urban sprawl during the last decades has worsened the problems related to stormwater management in urban areas [1]. Permeable Pavement Systems (PPS) are one of the most extensively researched BMP/SuDS techniques because of their well-proven performance in reducing runoff volumes and their pollutant removal efficiency [6,7,8,9]. These systems are principally composed of several layers of pervious materials that allow the water to infiltrate whilst retaining the pollutants deposited on their surface, which have been transported by urban runoff. It has been observed by some researchers that the minimum air void content that enables these infiltration capacities to be achieved is 15% [11]

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