A Study on the Relationship Between the Physical, Hydrological and Mechanical Properties of Pervious Concrete

During the rainy season, urban roads are affected by the stagnation of stormwater on the surface course which poses a major concern for road users. Pervious concrete or no-fines concrete is a special type of concrete that usually does not contain fine aggregates. The purpose of eliminating fine aggregates completely is to achieve effective drainage of stormwater when used in the construction of rigid pavements. The structure of pervious concrete comprises increased voids or pores compared to conventional concrete which promotes water permeability. However, the permeability of pervious concrete is achieved at the cost of reduced mechanical strength properties. Hence, pervious concrete design should be capable of balancing their porosity and structural strength as per the site requirement. This chapter discusses a detailed overview of the engineering properties of pervious concrete based on the studies by previous research works. Moreover, this chapter is aimed at reviewing the major design parameters of pervious concrete such as density, permeability, compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength and abrasion resistance. In addition to this, the interdependencies of the properties are also investigated to understand their level of dependence on the performance of pervious concrete. The porosity of the pervious concrete was observed to define its hydrological and mechanical strength properties of pervious concrete.