Study on the Process and Characteristics of Clogging for Ceramic Permeable Brick

A ceramic permeable brick was selected for study in a device that was designed to fully investigate the process and characteristics of clogging in permeable bricks. In order to evaluate the permeability influenced by clogging, a simulated rainfall was filtered through the permeable brick placed in an innovative device. The macroscopic and microscopic changes in the brick and the filtrate were all measured to fully investigate the causes and process of clogging. Then, the mechanism of clogging in the permeable brick pores was further discussed. The results showed that the clogging risk of permeable brick was extremely high, and it can result in a complete clogging in only 5–10 years under the experimental conditions. The permeability coefficient and porosity both decreased exponentially with the increase in filtrate, which was attributed to the clogging of the internal pore structure due to particle interception. The chord size distribution results stressed that the blockage mainly occurred in the upper layer pores in the range of 0.5–1.5 mm, which is relatively sensitive to clogging due to the particle size distribution in rain water. The particle size distribution of the influent and effluent indicated that the clogging process could completely remove particles larger than 88 µm but showed variable removal efficiency for particles with sizes of 20–88 µm. This research offers new insight into the clogging of permeable bricks and provides theoretical guidance for restoring the brick permeability.

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