Evaluation of Mechanical Properties and Structural Integrity for Pervious Concrete Pavement Systems

Pervious concrete pavements (PCP) are increasingly recognized and used as a best management practice to control stormwater runoff and for low-volume traffic. However, there are limited studies on the structural integrity of the PCP section on performance under vehicular loads. This study investigated the mechanical properties of field samples and the structural integrity of PCP when subjected to traffic loads using the falling weight deflectometer (FWD). The compressive strength for cored samples from the field installation was about 11.5 MPa with an average unit weight of 1,792 kg/m(3). The deflection of the PCP sections at the load application point was about 1.7 to 4 times of the impervious concrete section, dependent on the subbase characterization. The composition of the PCP subbase materials and the compaction effort of the layers significantly affected the deflection. Back-calculation analysis showed that the loosely compacted subbase layers had lower elastic moduli and exhibited higher deflection responses, which compromised the structural integrity of the PCP systems to traffic loadings. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.