Experimental Investigation on the Properties of Sustainable Pervious Concrete with Different Aggregate Gradation

Pervious concrete (PC) as a green infrastructure material has been increasingly used due to its positive environmental impacts, such as controlling storm water runoff, removing water pollutants and reducing heat island effect. The aggregate gradation is a critical factor influencing the physical properties of PC. Therefore, this paper represents an attempt to determine the effects of aggregate gradation on the various physical properties of PC, and then to explore relationships between them. To this end, three aggregate gradations 4.75–9.5 mm, 9.5–19 mm and 19–31.5 mm were recombined with various proportions (20–80%) to obtain five different gradations named as A, B, C, D and E. PC mixtures were prepared with these five aggregate gradations. Then, physical and mechanical properties of PC including porosity, permeability, compressive strength and water stability were investigated, according to the available specification. The results suggested that it was feasible to use waste concrete for permeable pavement, because all the specimens provided required specification requirements. Different linear relationships were also found between the maximum aggregate size and porosity, permeability coefficient, compressive strength and its loss rate. That is, porosity and permeability increased with the proportion of larger size aggregate increased, however, compressive strength reduced. Thus the compressive strength had an inverse correlation with the porosity and water permeability. Among five different aggregate gradations, group C (20% of 4.75–9.5 mm aggregate, 50% of 9.5–19 mm aggregate and 30% of 19–31.5 mm aggregate) can be seen as the optimum gradation and is suitable for base layer materials of permeable pavements.