The compressive strength and damage mechanisms of pervious concrete based on 2D mesoscale pore characteristics

Abstract

The compressive performance of pervious concrete depends largely on its pore characteristics. To study the effect of pore characteristics on the compressive strength of pervious concrete, different porosity specimens of pervious concrete were prepared. The Compression test and porosity test was performed on the pervious concrete specimens with a side length of 100 mm. A 2D numerical model of pervious concrete was developed by mesoscale pore characteristics of pervious concrete. The stress distributions and damage modes of pervious concrete during compression were analyzed by conducting uniaxial compressive simulation tests on the established model. The results indicate that the number of pores and maximum pore size of pervious concrete increase as the design porosity increases. The equivalent pore size follows a Gaussian distribution and the characteristic pore size is typically between 1 and 4 mm. The simulation results also indicate that porosity affects the stress distribution of pervious concrete mainly based on the solid phase percentage and contact area. The increase of the number of small pores (when the porosity is certain) is conducive to improving the uniformity of stress transmission, thereby enhancing the compressive strength of pervious concrete.