successfully testing pervious concrete

[aaronc]

Has any one used ASTM C 1688 for testing pervious concrete? what are your thoughts about perviouse concrete? Has ASTM / ACI helped anyone with pervious concerte? I am getting my information to gather before taking all of my informastion to the ASTM C.09 Committee. Thank you in advance.

 

[APankala]

Haven't used ASTM C 1688 to testing pervious concrete. Actually haven't read the whole procedures but seems to me if you want an estimate of what the void content is you fill in a cylinder of pervious concrete and compress the mixture to mimic how it will be installed on site. Get weight of the pervious concrete in the cylinder and then push entire cylinder contents into a graduated cylinder filled with water. Measure displaced volume. Now you have the measured density of your pervious concrete mixture. With those numbers you can do the math and figure out the amount of empty/void space there is in your poured and compacted slab. Now as for how much of that void space is connected from top to bottom? Well that is the tricky part. But in the end all you really care about is the max flow rate which the pervious concrete can filter. And I'm not sure if ASTM C 1688 really answers that question other than in an indirect manner of estimating based on void space and depth of the pored slab.

My thoughts on pervious concrete. It is THE key to vastly reduce the amount of rainfall water that is needed need to be treated at sewer plants which is a HUGE problem for most modern cities. Now how is this "key" implemented into solved the problem is the multi-million dollar project question. I have my ideas and will be speaking with DOT and sewer departments to see if my ideas are implementable and more importantly cost functioning.

On a side note I have another use of pervious concrete that has nothing to do with road usage but will be the next big step in advancement for what it is used for. 5 years or so down the road I hope to have that real word data to back this up and publish my findings to the world.

Architects and engineers are among the most fortunate of men since they build their own monuments with public consent, public approval and often public money.
- John Prebble -