Characterisation of pervious interlocking pavers for durable pavements: a laboratory study

ABSTRACT

Pervious concrete is a special type of concrete, achieved by either minimising or excluding the fine aggregates from the normal concrete mix. It is used to lower the problem of local flooding in municipal areas thereby decreasing the burden on municipal drainage system. This investigation was undertaken to examine the strength and durability properties of Pervious Interlocking Pavers (PIP) made with three grades of aggregates with varying fine aggregate proportions of the order of 0%, 10% and 20%. Additionally, the effect of 10% replacement of ordinary Portland cement with silica fume was experimented. The powder to aggregate ratio and water to cement ratio were retained constant at 0.2 and 0.35, respectively. The results showed that utilising 20% of fine aggregates increases the strength and durability properties of pervious interlocking pavers significantly without compromising the permeability limits at 28 days of curing. A substantial development in compressive strength of the order of 15.7% and 35.7% was observed at 10% and 20% substitution of fine aggregate for mixes PC10 and PC20 relative to control mix. Moreover, the partial replacement of silica fume compensates for the strength and durability loss for pervious interlocking pavers made without the inclusion of fine aggregates.

KEYWORDS:

• Abrasion resistance
• compressive strength
• flexure strength
• freeze and thaw
• microstructural analysis
• pervious concrete

Acknowledgement

The authors are highly thankful to the Department of Civil Engineering, Dr B R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology Jalandhar for proving the necessary equipment for conducting this investigation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The first author received financial support in the form of a fellowship from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India.