Relationships between Functional Properties of Pervious Concrete

Pervious concrete is characterized by its open-void structure, which gives it a number of specific properties and allows specific applications, including pervious pavements, residential roads, alleys, sidewalks, parking lots, patios, and so on. Permeable areas are extremely important for the creation of sustainable cities in terms of the water cycle. Due to its high void content and low cement/mortar content, pervious concrete generally may have significantly reduced strength when compared with conventional concrete. That is why a wide range of research activities is devoted to the balance between acceptable void content, strength, as well as other significant properties. Knowledge of the relationships between the individual properties is very important for understanding this specific material. In this paper, a wide range of 38 different composition variants has been tested to determine the dependencies between the essential properties of pervious concrete. The variables related to the type of aggregate, maximum grain size, the grain-size composition, the amount of binder, and the kind (composition) of binder. The dependencies reported in the article are defined with high reliability R2 ranging from 0.75 to 0.95. On the basis of the dependencies thus determined, it can be predicted that a density of min. 1740 kg/m3 must be reached to meet the requirement of min. 10 MPa for nonpavement applications, while a density of min. 1960 kg/m3 must be achieved to meet min. 20 MPa for pavement applications. The criteria of the void ratio for pavement applications can be set at 20 ± 3%, while the criteria for nonpavement applications can be set at 28 ± 6%.