Selection of aggregate suitable to produce pervious concrete for sustainable built environment

Abstract

Pervious concrete is a tailored concrete to have very high water permeability. The presence of interconnected pores of different sizes and shapes allow the passage of water to flow through easily. Permeable concrete pavement was shown to have significant advantages in storm water management over impervious pavements and minimizing the risk of flooding in urban environment. This research was conducted to determine a suitable aggregate for pervious concrete. The research methodology involved substituting the conventional crushed rock coarse aggregate with the three types of materials such as Recycled Concrete Aggregate (RCA), River Gravel (RG) and Gravel collected from Cinnamon Estates (CEG) in different percentages in order to determine the optimum percentage of materials that can be added. These materials are directly substituted for the coarse aggregate at 0%, 15%, 30%, 50% and 100% of the virgin material. Likewise three specimens are done, for RCA, RG and CEG with each consist of five batches. The performance of pervious concrete was evaluated through strength development, void content and permeability. The relationships between strength and void content, and permeability and porosity were reported. It was found that the recycled concrete aggregate affect the compressive strength of pervious concrete without influencing the permeability.