Prediction of the relationship between strength and porosity of pervious concrete: A micromechanical investigation

This paper aims to develop a micromechanical model to evaluate the compressive strength-porosity relationship of the pervious concrete mesostructure from its compositions. By considering this material within the framework of the quasi elasto-brittle approach, failure is governed by quadratic strain and stress averages. Through this approach, a micromechanical uniaxial compressive strength criterion of von Mises-type is constructed from phase-averaged properties. Due to its ability to predict percolation thresholds, the use of the self-consistent scheme is appropriate for determining the homogenized stiffness tensors. For the ease of broad engineering applications, two weighted self-consistent schemes, in which complex geometric properties are simplified by several free parameters, are proposed. First, the influences of these parameters on the macroscopic strength of pervious concrete are investigated. Then, to show the reliability and accuracy of the proposed approach, the present model's predicting strength is compared to experimental observations and existing models in the literature.