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Mechanical Properties of Pervious Concrete

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DOI: 10.5958/2231-3915.2015.00006.1

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 International J. Technology; July – December, 2015; Vol. 5: Issue 2

ISSN 2231-3907 (Print) www.enggresearch.net

ISSN 2231-3915 (Online) www.ijtonline.com

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Mechanical Properties of Pervious Concrete

Siddhant M. Chopda, Bhavesh M. Chhattani
Under graduate Student, School of Mechanical and Building Sciences, Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore,
India
*Corresponding Author Email: mahavir.chopda2013@vit.ac.in;bhavesh.manohar2013@vit.ac.in

ABSTRACT:
In recent times, major cities around the world have experienced frequent flooding due to the combination of increased rainfall
and reduced permeable surface areas. As a consequence, the drainage system gets overloaded and flash flooding becomes
inevitable, thus causing disruption to the road transport. In order to overcome such issues, an engineered solution is needed.
The solution is "Pervious Concrete", a special type of concrete having a high void content which ranges from 15% to 35%
and is instrumental in recharging groundwater and reducing storm water run-off. Also, considering the environmental effects
of Portland cement, it is essential in the concrete industry to minimize the use of cement in the production of both structural
and non-structural concrete. One way to reduce cement consumption is to use fly ash as a cement replacement material
because of the pozzolanic reactivity of fly ash. This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation into the various
mechanical properties of pervious concrete. The various mixes containing cement with varying percentages of fly ash as
binding material were used. Although it may seem tough to balance the demand for sustainable development with the need to
preserve our natural resources, but with the results obtained so far, this balance can be easily achieved.

KEYWORDS: Flash flooding, pervious concrete, storm water run-off, fly ash, sustainable development, natural
resources, compressive strength.

INTRODUCTION:
Concrete is the most commonly used building material in the world. It is estimated that the present consumption of concrete in
the world is of the order of 5.5 billion tonnes every year. Humans consume no material except water in such tremendous
quantities.

Concrete is a multifaceted material that can easily be mixed to meet a variety of special needs and be cast easily and
economically. It is a durable, fire resistant and energy efficient material.
Concrete finds applications in foundations and slabs-on-ground, walls, beams, columns, floors, roofs, bridges, dams, swimming
pools, homes, streets, patios, basements, balustrades, plain cement tiles, mosaic tiles, pavement blocks, kerbs, lamp-posts, drain
covers, benches pavements and other infrastructure.
But, impervious nature of normal weight concrete used for pavement construction increases the water runoff and contributes to
over-burdening to the existing drainage system. Also when it rains, large amount of water ends up falling on impervious surfaces
such as parking lots, driveways, sidewalks, and streets rather than seeping into the soil. This creates an imbalance in the delicate
natural ecosystem and leads to a host of problems namely erosion, water logging, floods, ground water depletion and pollution of
rivers, lakes and coastal water. A simple engineered solution to avoid these problems is to switch to pervious concrete or porous
pavement, a material that offers the inherent durability and low life-cycle costs of a typical concrete pavement while retaining
storm water runoff and replenishing local watershed systems [1] . Instead of preventing infiltration of water into the soil, pervious
pavement assists the process by capturing rainwater in a network of voids and allowing it to percolate into the underlying soil.
Pervious concrete is a special type of concrete having high water permeability due to the presence of interconnected pores,
ranging from 2 to 8 mm [2]. Pervious concrete also naturally filters water from rainfall or storm and thereby, reduces pollutant
loads entering into streams, ponds and rivers. In this way, it helps in ground water recharge. Pervious concrete has very high
permeability compared to standard concrete and the former drains water quickly. Pervious concrete is also lightweight concrete
having weight 1600 to 2000 kg/m3 [3]. Pervious concrete should have a porosity of 15% to 35% but most frequently about 20% [4].
In addition, carbon dioxide emission from Portland cement production is significant. It is known that one tonne of Portland
cement production releases 0.94 tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere. This contributes to global warming which leads to
undesirable climate change. Therefore, it is essential to minimize the use of Portland cement in pervious concrete mixes by
partially replacing the cement with industrial by-product, such as fly ash and enable mankind to take a step towards sustainable
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development. For instance, In Australia, 9 billion tonnes of cement was produced in 2006. But due to the use of alternative
materials like fly ash and slag, the CO2 emissions reduced to 0.72 tonne per tonne of cement produced [5] .
The effects of having varying fine aggregate content, water cement ratio and partial cement replacement with fly ash on the
various characteristics of pervious concrete are studied.

AIM AND OBJECTIVE:

The main focus of presented paper was to find the optimum mix design of the pervious concrete mixes and test the specimens for
various properties of the pervious concrete on different mixes with varying fly ash content after obtaining the optimum desired
mix design for pervious concrete. Mechanical properties were examined. Compressive Strength Test and Rapid Chloride
Permeability Test were conducted for optimization of the mix design.
Using different proportion of fly ash as substitute for cement may change concrete’s mechanical properties which may improve
some characteristics and behavior and bring about new types of applications which has not been done till now.

MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY:

Materials
53 Grade Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) as per clause (IS12269 1987) and low calcium fly ash (IS3812-1 2003) were used as
binder materials in the concrete mixes. Coarse aggregate (10 mm to 20 mm) Crushed River Gravel (specific gravity of 2.70) was
used as coarse aggregate (IS383 1970). Fine aggregate (specific gravity of 2.60) as per clause (IS383 1970) (River Sand) of Zone
II was used. The water to be used for casting should be free from organic matter. Potable water is generally considered
satisfactory as per clause no. (5.4 of IS456-2000). Tap water available in the laboratory was used for mixing the ingredients of
concrete and curing of the specimens. No chemical admixture was used in the concrete mixes.

Mixture Proportions
Mix proportion by weight for pervious concrete throughout the work carried out was 1 : 4.1 [6] (Binder material, Coarse
aggregate), respectively. The overall aggregate to binder ratio for concrete mix was 4.4 to 4.7, by weight. Water to Binder ratio is
important in the production of pervious concrete since it has an influence of the workability of pervious concrete. Various trial
mixes were made with varying W/C ratios (0.30, 0.33, 0.36) and each W/C ratio was used for varying fine aggregate (0.3, 0.45,
0.6). Fine aggregate was deliberately reduced in proportion in the mixes to create large open textured porous concrete.
After coming to a conclusion about the optimum mix design, Cement was replaced partially with fly ash by 10%, 20% and 30%,
by weight and various results were investigated.

Table 1 : Mix proportions for pervious concrete by weight

Mix Cement C.A F.A Water
(kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3)
1 1 4.1 0.3 0.3
2 1 4.1 0.3 0.33
3 1 4.1 0.3 0.36
4 1 4.1 0.45 0.3
5 1 4.1 0.45 0.33
6 1 4.1 0.45 0.36
7 1 4.1 0.6 0.3
8 1 4.1 0.6 0.33
9 1 4.1 0.6 0.36
W-Water; C.A.-Coarse Aggregate; F.A.-Fine Aggregate

Methodology
Casting
Fresh pervious concrete mixes were produced in a pan-type of mixer. For each concrete mix, a number of 100mm length by
100mm breadth by 100mm high cubes and 100mm by 200mm cylindrical specimens were cast [7].

Curing
All the test specimens were demoulded after 24 hours and stored in water at 200 C until the ages of testing [7] .

Testing Of Concrete
Compressive Strength, Porosity and Permeability of hardened concrete was determined using the cube and cylindrical specimens.

Compressive Strength [8]: Compressive strength test was performed according to (IS:516-1959). For the pervious Concrete, nine
cube specimens of varying mix design were used. The specimens were cured in water (20°C) until the testing. The compressive
strength of each and every cube was reported for pervious concrete mixes without fly ash after 7 and 28 days. After finding the
optimum pervious concrete mix design, the compressive strength of each and every cube was reported for pervious concrete
mixes with fly ash after 7 and 28 days.

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Porosity (ASTM C1754/C1754M-12): The void content for hardened concrete was determined using oven-dry and saturated
weights , using the following equation [9]:
Vr = 100 * [1 – {(W2 – W1) / (pw * V)}]

Where:
W2 - Oven dry weight (g)
W1 - Weight under water for 24 hours (g)
Vr - Porosity (%)
pw - Density of water (10-3 g/m3)
V - Volume of the sample (m3)

Permeability (ASTM C 1202 -12): The specimen's permeability was evaluated on the basis of the Rapid Chloride Permeability
Test set up [10].

RESULT AND DISCUSSION:

Effect of Shape on Strength of Test Specimens
Compressive strength of concrete can be determined by using either cubes or cylinders. In this study, both cubes (100 mm) and
cylinders (100 mm diameter by 200 mm high) were used. Cubes were easy to handle and 100 mm cubes were appropriate.
Further research is needed to establish the appropriate test specimen size and shape for the evaluation of compressive strength for
pervious concrete. Both cube and cylinder strength results were seen to be nearly the same. So, it became evident that the
compressive strength is not significantly affected by the specimen size. This implie s that 100 mm cubes could be used for
strength testing and capping of the specimens may be needed, considering the uneven surface profile even of the cast surface.

Table 2 Compressive Strength of Cubes and Cylinder Specimens for 7 and 28 days
Mix FC FC (N/mm2) FC (N/mm2) FC (N/mm2)
(N/mm2) 7 days 28 days 7 days 28 days
CUBES CYLINDERS
1 3 4.6 3.5 4.8
2 7.4 11.5 7 11.9
3 11.2 17.4 11.6 16.8
4 3.7 5.8 4.2 5.2
5 9.4 14.6 9.1 13.8
6 13.3 20.7 12.9 19.9
7 4.5 7.1 4.2 7.4
8 10.4 16.2 9.8 15.4
9 15.4 23.9 15.2 23.7
18 30
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH (N/mm2)

16
25
COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH (N/mm2)

14
12 20
10 Strength of Cube Strength of Cube
15
8 (7 days) (28 days)
Strength of Strength of
6 Cylinder (7 days) 10 Cylinder (28 days)
4
2 5

0
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
MIX DESIGNS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
MIX DESIGNS
Fig. 1 Comparison between Compressive Strength Fig. 2 Comparison between Compressive Strength
of Cubes and Cylinder Specimens for 7 days of Cubes and Cylinder Specimens for 28 days

Porosity of Pervious Concrete Cube Specimens

The porosities of pervious concrete mixes are shown in Table 3. The porosity of the conventional concrete decreases with the
increase of age, due to continuous hydration of the cement. In contrast, the porosity of the pervious concrete was found to be
independent on the age of concrete. However, the porosity in pervious concrete is mainly due to large size air voids which are
bigger than the pores in cement paste. The porosity of pervious concrete is influenced by aggregate grading and compaction.
Hence, the porosity of pervious concrete is not noticeably changed with an increase in the age of concrete.

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Table 3 Porosity of pervious concrete mixes Table 4 Permeability Of Pervious Concrete Specimens

Mix Vr Vr Mix K Charge Passing

(%) (7 days) (%) (28 days) (56 days) (Coulombs)
1 30.98 31.12 1 HIGH 4566
2 21.25 23.1 2 MODERATE 3980
3 12.92 13.01 3 MODERATE 3611
4 29.2 30.1 4 HIGH 4983
5 16.87 17.09 5 MODERATE 3720
6 8.28 8.31 6 LOW 1500
7 30.98 31.23 7 HIGH 4683
8 14.69 15.12 8 MODERATE 3774
9 3.507 3.78 9 LOW 1374

Fig. 3 Relationship between Porosity and Compressive Strength of Cube Specimen

Relationship between Porosity and Strength

30
25
Compressive Strength (N/mm2)

20
15
10 7 Days
28 Days
5
0
0 10 20 30 40

Porosity (%)
Fig. 3 Relationship between Porosity and Strength

Optimization of Pervious Concrete Mix Design without Fly ash

Usually, for pavement design using concrete a range of 3.5MPa to 28MPa strength, especially 17MPa is expected. Also, the
porosity must vary between 15% to 35%. The permeability can be High or Moderate as per RCPT test. After satisfying all the
component values, we finally render 1: 4.1: 0.3 : 0.36 (Binder material, Coarse Aggregate, Fine Aggregate, Water) respectively
as an optimum Pervious Concrete Design.

Table 5 Compressive Strength of Table 6 Porosity of Pervious Concrete with Fly ash
Pervious Concrete with Fly ash

Cement Fly ash Porosity

Cement Fly ash Strength
% % %
% % MPa
7 Days 28 Days
7 Days 28 Days
100 0 12.92 13.01
100 0 11.2 17.4
90 10 21.12 12.68
90 10 11.6 17.6
80 20 20.56 11.55
80 20 12 18.4
70 30 19.71 9.85
70 30 12.6 19.6

CONCLUSION:
Pervious concrete is produced with conventional concrete making materials with no-fines and fine aggregate contents of 6.5%
and 12.5% of the total aggregate content. Based on the preliminary trial mixes for the balling ability the water to binder ratio of
0.36 by weight was found to be the ideal to produce workable pervious concrete. In order to reduce the cement content in
pervious concrete, 10%, 20%, 30% of the cement was replaced with fly ash. The results showed that the no-fines pervious
concrete had the void content of about 15% compared to the negligible void content value for the conventional concrete. 30%
cement replacement with fly ash increased the 28-day compressive strength of pervious concrete by about 12.5 %.

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 International J. Technology; July – December, 2015; Vol. 5: Issue 2

After successfully executing the experiment and obtaining the output, the results were critically analyzed which brings us the
following conclusions:
Based on the experimental investigation on the pervious concrete with Fly ash, the following conclusions could be made:
 Compressive strength of pervious concrete depends primarily on the porosity of concrete. Compressive strength of
pervious concrete varies inversely with the porosity of concrete as observed in the Fig. 4.4.
 Test specimen's shape had marginal influence on the strength of pe rvious concrete for a given porosity.
 For a specific porosity, naturally obtained concrete aggregate increases the compressive strength of pervious concrete
as age increases.
 Permeability of pervious concrete is influenced by the porosity and the use of Fly Ash had no significant effect on the
permeability of pervious concrete, whereas the Compressive Strength increased a bit with 30% replacement of cement
with Fly ash.

REFERENCES:
1. Meininger, R.C., “No-Fines Pervious Concrete for Paving,” Concrete International, Vol. 10, Issue 8, Aug 1998 pp. 20-27.
2. ACI Committee 522. (2006). Pervious concrete. Report No. 522R-06, American Concrete Institute. Detroit, USA, 2006, 25p.
3. Ajamu S.O., Jimoh A.A. “Evaluation of structural Performance of Previous Concrete in Construction” , International Journal of
Engineering and Technology Volume 2 No. 5, May, 2012
4. NRMCA, "What, Why, and How? Pervious Concrete," Concrete in Practice Series. CIP 38, 2004.
5. Australian Cement Industry Sustainable Report, Cement Industry Federation, 2007, 32p
6. ACI 211.3R, Guide for Selecting Proportions for No-Slump Concrete
7. Sri Ravindrarajah R. and Aoki Y., “Environmentally friendly porous concrete”, Proceedings of the Second International Conference on
Advances in Concrete and Construction, Hyderabad, India, Feb 2008
8. IS: 516–1956, Indian Standard Methods of Tests for Strength of Concrete (1999)
9. Park and Tia, 2004. “An experimental study on the water-purification properties of porous concrete,” Cement and Concrete Research, (Vol.
34), pp.177-184.
10. “Standard Test Method for Electrical Indication of Concrete’s Ability to Resist Chloride Ion Penetration,” ASTM C 1202-97, Annual Book
of ASTM Standards, Vol. 04.02, pp. 639–644.

Received on 14.11.2015 Accepted on 21.12.2015

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Int. J. Tech. 5(2): July-Dec., 2015; Page 113-117
DOI: 10.5958/2231-3915.2015.00006.1

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