Study of clogging on pervious concrete applied on light traffic and pedestrian pavement

ABSTRACT

Clogging is an issue related to pervious concrete pavements because sediments accumulate in the concrete voids and reduce its hydraulic conductivity. This study investigates the influence of the sediment typology and material maintenance on its permeability in order to correlate clogging evolution and the hydraulic performance of the material. In the experimental program, pervious concretes were designed with different percentages of fine aggregate, and the samples produced were submitted to permeability tests after sediment deposition and aspiration cleaning cycles. The results indicated that larger particles (sand) caused the loss of permeability by sealing the upper layer of the samples, while fine sediments (clay) clog the lower layers. Maintenance efficiency was demonstrated by the total recovery of permeability for sand clogging and by 96.85% for clay sedimentation. These results prove that, despite affecting the hydraulic performance of the permeable concrete, clogging is recoverable by means of periodic pavement maintenance/cleaning.

KEYWORDS:

• Clogging
• pervious concrete
• maintenance

Highlights

1) The granular arrangement of pervious concrete influences the material’s permeability, which affects the clogging mode and the maintenance efficiency.2) Coarser sediments tend to cause superficial clogging, while fine sediments promote internal blocking.3) Scheduled cleaning helps maintain permeability and extend the life of the material.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Federal University of Pará State (Universidade Federal do Pará) for the support provided for this research through the postgraduate program in infrastructure engineering and energy development, and Centrais Elétricas Norte do Brasil (Eletronorte) for donating the materials.

Disclosure statement

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