Experimental Study on Pervious Concrete

Due to its excellent air and water permeability, pervious concrete has become an environmental friendly material in paving application, providing its benefits in reducing the runoff water, enhancing pavement skid resistance by rapid drainage of water, and reducing pavement noise. However, its high porosity and low strength limit its popularity. Based on the concept of pervious concrete, a mix design approach especially for pervious concrete was proposed and an experimental study was undertaken to produce high performance pervious concrete by using gap-graded coarse aggregates and adjusting cement content. The results indicated that pervious concrete with compressive strength up to 33.5 MPa and permeability coefficient of 6 ml/min can be obtained by using this mix design approach. The results also showed that for pervious concrete made with gap-graded aggregates, the strength increases, and the permeability coefficient decreases with the decrease of the aggregate size. There is an optimum content of cement used to coat the coarse aggregates, enhancing the cement-aggregate interface bonding and overall performance of pervious concrete.