Pervious concrete and its applications

Abstract

An increased use of concrete in roads, embankments, parking areas and drainage systems has been witnessed in Sri Lanka with the recent rapid development of infrastructure and urbanization of many rural areas. Unless well designed drainage systems are provided and regularly maintained, concrete paved impervious areas could pose serious environmental problems with reduced ground water infiltration. The retention of water in rainy weather, increases the risk of epidemics with mosquitoes eding in stagnant pools of water. Pervious concrete is widely used today, in developed countries to address these problems. However, in Sri Lanka, it is not widely used due to lack of knowledge of its applications, properties, and also due to non-availability of proper mix design method to produce pervious concrete to achieve the required properties. This paper describes experimental studies that were carried out to investigate the properties of pervious concrete with view to develop an appropriate mix design method using locally available materials.