Development of a mix design method for pervious concrete

Abstract

Rapid infrastructure development and urbanization of many rural areas can be seen in Sri Lanka recently. Concrete is widely used in construction of roads, sidewalks, embankments, parking areas and drainage systems due to its fast, easiness in construction and low maintenance cost. Unless well designed drainage systems are provided and regularly maintained, concrete paved impervious areas could cause serious environmental problems such as reduced ground water infiltration, frequent flooding during rainy seasons, need of larger drainage systems to cater for higher storm water run-offs, and risk of epidemics due to mosquito breeding in poorly constructed concrete drains. Pervious concrete is developed and widely used today in most of the developed countries to address most of these problems. However in Sri Lanka, it is not widely used due to lack of knowledge of its applications, properties, and also due to non-availability of proper mix design method to produce pervious concrete to achieve required properties. Therefore, a research study has been carried out to investigate the properties of pervious concrete to develop a simple mix design method. This report describes all details of the research study including the findings of the experimental study and the proposed mix design procedure to achieve the required compressive strength and permeability of concrete. Keywords - infiltration, porosity, permeability, gap graded concrete