Testing development of different surface treatments on pervious concrete

Abstract

Pervious concrete systems are developing stormwater management technologies which also have wintertime benefits as melting snow may percolate into the system instead of refreezing on the surface. Enhancing the surface microtexture of pervious concrete may also be beneficial in preventing icing or slipping by pedestrians. This research explored different surface treatments on pervious concrete specimens both qualitatively from personal judgements, and quantitatively through static friction measurements with a spring balance with respect to “slipperiness”. The tests were performed on both dry and wet specimens. One aim was to determine whether the spring balance method may be a simple test for comparing surface treatments on pavement samples with little surface area such as laboratory specimens or sidewalk sections. The other purpose was to make a preliminary decision of which surface treatments to use for a sidewalk installation for future studies on wintertime performance. The reliability analysis of the spring balance results showed that there was high operator consistency. In addition, there was a high level of consistency on average results between the quantitative and qualitative methods. This implies that the spring balance test may be an acceptable methodology for comparative analyses with respect to static friction.