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Abstract
Introduction
Pervious concrete or Enhanced Porosity Concrete has a strictly gap graded coarse
aggregate phase and little or no fine aggregates so as to facilitate the formation of an
interconnected network of pores in the material. The material is designed with a
cementitious material content just enough to coat the coarse aggregate particles so that a
configuration that allows the passage of water at a much higher rate than conventional
concrete is produced. The major applications of pervious concrete include (i) surfaces for
parking lots, to help in storm water conservation, (ii) pavements to reduce the tire-
pavement interaction noise, and (iii) rigid drainage layers under exterior mall areas
(Tennis et al. 2004, ACI Committee 522, 2005). However, the major thrust for using
pervious concrete stems from its capability to drain, and potentially de-pollute enormous
amounts of water in a short time, thus reducing the run off rates and protecting water
supplies. Pervious concrete, because of its unique pore configuration, allows the water to
percolate into the ground under the pavement or parking area. The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has adopted a policy that recommends the use of pervious
pavements as a part of “Best Management Practice” (BMP) as a means to mitigate the
problem of stormwater runoff.
The physical and mechanical properties of pervious concretes are reported
elsewhere (Onstenk et al. 1993, Yang and Jiang 2003, Neithalath 2004, Neithalath et al.
2005, 2006, Tennis et al. 2004). The use of larger aggregate sizes up to 20 mm
maximum size has been recommended for pervious concrete since they result in large
sized pores in the material as well as reduced clogging (Nelson and Phillips 1994).
Recently, ACI Committee 522 has suggested that the aggregate sizes for pervious
concrete should be between 9.5 mm and 19 mm, and that no fine aggregates should be
used. The water permeation capacity or the drainage properties are closely related to the
accessible porosity. For an accessible porosity of 20-29%, the coefficient of permeability
is about 0.01 m/s (Belgian Road Research Center Report BE 3415, 1994). It has also
been reported that the fine aggregate content determines the permeability. A drainage
rate of 100 to 750 l/min/m2 has been reported for several pervious concretes (Tennis et al.
2004). Intrinsic permeability of 1 x 10-10 m2 to 5 x 10-10 m2 has been reported for
pervious concretes with porosity ranging from 17% to 28% (Neithalath et al. 2006).
The main objective of this paper is to assess the physical features of the pore
system of pervious concrete as well as to assess its permeability. The electrical
conductivity of pervious concrete saturated with an electrolyte was measured and used to
describe the porosity and pore connectivity using a modified form of Archie’s equation
that considers two conducting phases. A falling head permeameter was used to quantify
the hydraulic conductivity. Results from the falling head permeameter were described
using the Kozeny-Carman equation. This paper attempts to develop a relationship
between measured characteristics (i.e., pore volume and electrical conductivity) and the
pore structure (connectivity) for use in the prediction of hydraulic conductivity (i.e.,
permeability) of pervious concrete. This paper draws upon the results from previous
work reported by the authors (Neithalath 2004, Neithalath et al. 2005, 2006, Marolf et al.
2004).
Experimental Program
This section describes the materials, mixtures, and test methods used in this study.
Specifically, the determination of porosity by a water saturation method as well as image
analysis, electrical conductivity by impedance spectroscopy, and hydraulic conductivity
by a falling head permeameter are described.
Pervious Concrete Mixtures. The mixture proportions used in this study are given in
Table 1. This is adopted from a larger study directed towards ascertaining the influence
of material structure of pervious concrete on hydraulic conductivity and acoustic
absorption (Neithalath 2004, Marolf et al. 2004). Single sized aggregates (limestone
aggregates with a specific gravity 2.72) - # 8 (2.36 - 4.75 mm), # 4 (4.75 – 9.5 mm), and
3/8" (9.5 – 12.5 mm), as well as the binary blends of these aggregate sizes (i.e., by
replacing 25, 50, and 75% by weight of the larger aggregates with smaller sized
aggregates) were used to proportion the mixtures. One series of mixtures had 2.5, 5, and
7.5% of # 4 aggregates replaced by river sand. The water-cement ratio (w/c) of all
mixtures was kept constant at 0.33. The mixtures were prepared using a 2 ft3 laboratory
mixer, cast in 150 x 150 x 700 mm molds, and consolidated using external vibration.
Cylinders having a diameter of 95 mm were cored from the beam specimens after they
were cured for 28 days to study the hydraulic properties.
Table 1. Mixture proportions and porosity
Porosity
% Fine Water- Porosity
% 3/8" %#4 %#8 (image
Mixture ID aggregate Cement (volume
aggregates aggregates aggregates analysis
(sand) ratio (w/c) method)
method)
100 - #8 0 0 100 0 0.33 0.207 0.214
75-#8 - 25-#4 0 25 75 0 0.33 0.208 0.305
50-#8 - 50-#4 0 50 50 0 0.33 0.247 0.260
25-#8 - 75-#4 0 75 25 0 0.33 0.225 0.276
100 - #4 0 100 0 0 0.33 0.206 0.203
75-#8 - 25-3/8 25 0 75 0 0.33 0.225 0.219
50-#8 - 50-3/8 50 0 50 0 0.33 0.190 0.151
25-#8 - 75-3/8 75 0 25 0 0.33 0.174 0.244
100 - 3/8 100 0 0 0 0.33 0.193 0.237
50-#4 - 50-3/8 50 50 0 0 0.33 0.264 0.303
97.5-#4 - 2.5 sand 0 97.5 0 2.5 0.33 0.187 0.189
95-#4 - 5sand 0 95 0 5 0.33 0.176 0.212
92.5-#4 - 7.5sand 0 92.5 0 7.5 0.33 0.160 0.231
Porous foam
Specimen enclosed
in latex membrane
Stainless steel
plate as bottom
Figure 1. Specimen set up for electrical impedance measurements
The stainless steel plates served as the electrodes and alligator plugs from the
impedance analyzer were attached to the electrodes. The impedance measurements were
made over the frequency range of 1 MHz to 10 Hz using a 250 mV AC signal.
Using the bulk resistance (Rb) obtained from the Nyquist plots, the effective
electrical conductivity (σeff) of the sample was calculated as:
l
σ eff = (1)
Rb A
where l is the specimen length and A is the cross sectional area of the specimen.
The electrolytes used in this study were sodium chloride (NaCl) solutions of
varying concentrations (1%, 3%, and 10%). The conductivity of 1% NaCl solution was
1.56 S/m whereas the conductivities of 3% and 10% solutions were 4.40 S/m and 12.40
S/m respectively.
95 mm
Graduated cylinder
300 mm
Drain pipe
Top of the 10 mm
sample
150 mm
Sample
O-Ring
100 mm
Valve
Relationship between Porosity, Pore Size, and Intrinsic Permeability. Several studies
have predicted the permeability (permeability in this paper refers to intrinsic
permeability) of porous media from the porosity. For example, it has been suggested that
Darcy’s law could be given a form similar to Archie’s law (deLima and Nivas 2000), to
relate the permeability and porosity of rock systems:
k = a1φ b1 (6)
where k is the intrinsic permeability (units of m2), φ is the porosity, and a1 and b1 are
constants.
Figures 3(a) and (b) depict the relationship between the aggregate sizes, pore sizes
(a), porosity (φ), and intrinsic permeability of pervious concretes. From Figure 3(a), it
could be observed that all the three specimens have similar values of porosity but the
specimen with 3/8” aggregate shows a remarkably higher permeability, possibly due to
its larger pore sizes. Figure 3(b) shows the permeability of pervious concrete mixtures
made from a blend of different sized aggregates.
4 6
Intrinsic Permeability (m2) x 10-10
φ = 0.225
Intrinsic Permeability (m2) x 10-10
φ = 0.193 5 a = 2.83 mm
3 a = 4.76mm
4 φ = 0.247
φ = 0.206
a = 3.29mm a = 2.58 mm
3 φ = 0.263
2 φ = 0.207 a = 3.62 mm
a = 2.17mm
2
1
1
0 0
50% #4 25% #8 50% #8
#8 #4 3/8" 50% 3/8" 75% # 4 50% # 4
(a) (b)
Figure 3. Relationship between aggregate sizes, pore sizes, porosity, and intrinsic
permeability, (a) single sized aggregate mixtures, (b) blended aggregate mixtures
It can be seen that the specimen that exhibits the highest permeability neither has
the highest porosity, nor the largest pore size. This proves that permeability is not a
function of the porosity and the pore sizes alone, rather the pore connectivity has to be
combined with easily measurable pore structure features like porosity and pore size to
gain a fundamental understanding of the permeability of the system. This aspect is
further emphasized in Figure 4, which shows the porosity-permeability relationship of the
pervious concrete mixtures (without addition of sand) investigated in this study.
5
0
0.16 0.18 0.20 0.22 0.24 0.26 0.28
Porosity (φp)
The first element represents the conductivity associated with the free electrolyte
in the larger pores of pervious concrete while the other represents the conductivity
associated with the matrix that binds the aggregates. The necessity of considering
pervious concrete as a two-phase conducting medium with the matrix phase also
conducting has been elaborated elsewhere (Neithalath et al. 2006). The drawback of
Equation 7 is that this representation does not take into account the connectivity of the
pore and the solid networks. To counter this, the parallel model has been modified by
including a connectivity factor (β) (Garboczi 1990). The modified parallel model then
becomes:
σ eff = σ pφ p β p + σ sφ s β s (8)
where βp and βs are termed the connectivity factors, representing the connectivities of the
pore and the solid phases respectively.
Considering that the solid phase network has a connectivity of 1.0 (it can be
proved that this is the case), Equation 8 reduces to:
σ eff = σ pφ p β p + σ sφs (9)
σ eff − σ sφs
A term, modified normalized conductivity ( ) , which is equal to the
σp
product of the porosity and the pore connectivity factor is defined (hereinafter expressed
as σ norm*), which can be thought of as a true measure of the pore structure of the material.
From Equation 9, the product of porosity (φ) and pore phase connectivity (βp) is
given by:
(σ eff − σ sφ s )
β pφ p = = σ norm
*
(10)
σp
The effective conductivity (σeff) can be easily deduced using Equation 1 in which
the bulk resistance is equal to the real impedance when the imaginary impedance is a
minimum, as shown with arrows for different single sized aggregate pervious concrete
mixtures in a Nyquist plot (Figure 5).
-700
100% 3/8"
100% #4
Imaginary impedance (Z")
-600
100% #8
-500
-400
-300
-200
-100
0
100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Real impedance (Z')
Figure 5. Nyquist plot for pervious concrete mixtures saturated with 3% NaCl
solution (the arrows indicate the corresponding bulk resistances)
The porosity can be measured using the procedure described in the section on
experimental program. The conductivity of the solution filling the pores is also known.
The only unknown in Equation 10 to determine σ norm* is the conductivity of the solid
phase (σs). In this study, the solid phase conductivity has been determined by using a
modified form of Archie’s law which accounts for two-phase conducting media. The
specimen was saturated with electrolytes of three different conductivities, resulting in
three variants for the modified Archie’s law, which can then be solved for the unknowns,
one of which is σs. More details about this procedure can be found in (Neithalath et al.
2006).
Carman equation is equivalent to, and can be replaced by [σ norm ] . Using this approach,
* 2
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
-10
Hydraulic connectivity factor (βH) x 10
where β’ is a factor that accounts for the tortuosity (or connectivity) of the pores (similar
to βp), and lc is a characteristic length.
Equation 13 can be rewritten using normalized conductivity, to yield Equation 14.
β' 2
k=σ [ *
norm ] β lc (14)
p
From this equation, it can be seen that permeability could be considered as being directly
proportional to the modified normalized conductivity.
The modified normalized electrical conductivity, as well as its square are plotted
against the intrinsic permeability in Figures 7(a) and (b) respectively. The plots show
that there is no significant statistical difference between the two (R2 values of 0.93 and
0.92, respectively), but as Equation 11 can be easily derived from the Kozeny-Carman
equation, it is recommended that the permeability of pervious concrete should be taken as
being related to the square of the electrical conductivity.
5 5
(m2)
(m )
2
R2=0.93
4 4
-10
-10
Intrinsic permeability x 10
Intrinsic permeability x 10
3 R2=0.92
3
2 2
1 1
0 0
0.00 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0 0.0004 0.0008 0.0012 0.0016
Modified normalized conductivity Square of modified normalized conductivity
(a) (b)
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support received from the Institute for
Safe, Quiet, and Durable Highways (SQDH) and the Center for Advanced Cement Based
Materials (ACBM). This work was conducted in the Charles Pankow Concrete Materials
Laboratory of Purdue University; as such the authors gratefully acknowledge the support
that has made this laboratory possible.
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