1273

WATER ABSORBATION OF
CONCRETE ROAD
Abstract: Water Absorbing pavement is a technique in
Pavement construction. This technique we can find a solution
for the low ground water level, effective management of rain
water runoff, Agricultural problems, etc. Porous concrete can
be introduced in low traffic volume areas, walk ways, sub
base for concrete pavements, inter locking material etc.
Porous concrete material have the ability to allow water to
flow through itself to recharge ground water level and
minimize surface rain water runoff. This property of porous
concrete reviews its applications and engineering properties,
including environmental benefits, strength. By replacing a
part of cement with conplast SP430, then it results the more
strength to the concrete. Hence it take acts as an eco-friendly
paving material. Porous concrete is a special type of concrete,
which consists of cement, coarse aggregates, water and if
required, mixtures and other cement materials. As there are
no fine aggregates used in the concrete matrix, the void
content is more which allows the rain water to flow through
its body. So the porous concrete is also called as Permeable
concrete and Previous concrete.

INTRODUCTION
Porous pavement is a rain water drainage system that allows strom
water and runoff to move through the pavements surface to storage
1274

layer below, with the eventually absorbing into the underlying soil.
Permeable pavement is beneficial to the environment because it can
reduce rain water volume, treat the rain water quality, and replenish
the ground water supply and lower air temperatures in summer season.
Due to increased void ratio, water conveyed through the surface and
allowed to infiltrate and evaporate, whereas conventional surfaces will
not do so. A porous pavement surface therefore becomes an active
participant in hydrological cycle: rain fall and ice melt are conveyed
back through soil into ground water. And also this pavement
technology creates more efficient land use by eliminating the need for
ponds, swales, and other rain water management devices. In doing so,
porous concrete has the Ability to lower overall project costs on a
first-cost basis. In porous concrete, carefully controlled amounts of
water and cement materials are used to create a paste that forms a
thick coating around aggregate particles. A porous concrete mixture
contains little or no sand, creating a substantial void content. And
that’s why it is also known as No fines Concrete. Using sufficient
paste to coat and bind the aggregate particles together creates a system
of highly permeable, Inter-connected voids that drain quickly. For
porous concrete, water permeability is the main specification
requirement instead of its strength and continuity of the open pores is
the main concern in the production of porous concrete.

DISCUSSION
Many research works have been done on pervious concrete since 18
th century. These researches have been proved to be helpful in
understanding the behavior of pervious concrete. From these papers,
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this can be summarized that Europeans first used the porous concrete
in 1800s for pavement surfacing and load bearing walls. It has been in
use in United States since 1970s (Malhotra 1976), in India it became
popular in 2000. Its popularity has increased significantly since last 10
years since its usefulness in managing storm water runoff is realized.
A) Performance of pavement can be generally defined as to the
change in their condition or function with respect to age. It can also be
indicative of the ability of a pavement to carry the intended traffic and
satisfy the environment during the design life, both functionally and
structurally. With the increased economic and development activities
in India, the traffic has increased multi fold during the last 3 decades
resulting in the overstressing of road network. The development of
higher stresses leads to performance failure of the pavements. If the
pavements fail to carry the design loads satisfactorily, then the failure
is of structural type. It is of functional type, if the pavement does not
provide a smooth riding surface. The uneven surface not only causes
discomfort, but also increases the Vehicle Operating Cost (VOC), thus
influencing the overall transportation cost. This chapter gives a broad
outline of the importance of pavement performance evaluation, type
of models, applications of performance models in other countries for
their Pavement Management System and the research studies carried
out so Far.
B) The tyre is a complex and high-tech safety product representing
a century of manufacturing innovation, which is still on-going. From
the material point of view the tyre is made up of three main
components materials: (i) elastomeric compound, (ii) fabric and (iii)
steel. The fabric and steel form the structural skeleton of the tyre with
the rubber forming the “flesh” of the tyre in the tread, side wall,
1276

apexes, liner and shoulder wedge. This engineering process is

necessary to transform natural rubber in a product able to ensure
performance, durability and safety. In fact, natural rubber is sticky in
nature and can easily deform when heated up and it is brittle when
cooled down. In this state it cannot be used to make products with a
good level of elasticity. The reason for inelastic deformation of not-
vulcanised rubber can be found in the chemical nature as rubber is
made of long polymer chains. These polymer chains can move
independently relative to each other, and this will result in a change of
shape. By the process of vulcanisation crosslinks are formed between
the polymer chains, so the chains cannot move independently
anymore. As a result, when stress is applied the vulcanised rubber will
deform, but upon release of the stress the rubber article will go back
to its original shape. Compounding is finally used to improve the
physical properties of rubber by incorporating the ingredients and
ancillary substances necessary for vulcanisation, but also to adjust the
hardness and modulus of the vulcanised product to meet the end
requirement. Different substances can be added according to the
different type mixtures; these include mineral oil and reinforcing
fillers as carbon black and silica . In general, truck TR contains larger
percentages of natural rubber compared to that from car . the general
tyre composition of tyres used in cars and trucks in the EU.
C) Porous asphalt pavements are typically recommended for
parking areas and low-volume roadways. Additional applications of
porous asphalt are for pedestrian walkways, sidewalks, driveways,
bike lanes, and shoulders (Hein et al. 2013). Also, porous asphalt
pavements have been used successfully for residential and urban
1277

streets, as well as highways. Porous asphalt pavements can be

installed as whole or in part with traditional impervious asphalt.
D) Pavements. When installed in combination with impervious
pavements or adjacent to building roofs, porous asphalt can
sufficiently contain and treat the additional runoff generated.
E) Porous asphalt pavements are an alternative Technology that
differs from traditional Asphalt pavement designs in that the structure
permits fluids to pass freely really through it, reducing or controlling
the amount of runoff from the surrounding area, by allowing
precipitation and runoff to flow through the structure this payment
type functions are as additional storm water management technique
accounting from groundwater recharge both includes improve
Stormwater management improve skid resistance production of spray
two drivers and pedestrians as well as a potential noise reduction.

Objectives
1. To study of porous pavement.
2. Planning and designing of porous pavement.
3. Environmental consideration of porous Asphalt.
4. Development of permeable pavement.
5. Natural aggregate was replaced with discarded concrete and clay
brick aggregates.
6. Addition of recycled clay brick aggregates increases the crushing
index.
7. Increase of crushing index exerts a negative impact on
mechanical properties.
8. The effects of crushing index on the porosity and permeability
can be ignored.
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Material Used
A. Cement
Cement is a key to infrastructure industry and is used for various
purposes and also made in many compositions for a wide variety of
uses. Cements may be named after the principal Constituents, after the
intended purpose, after the object to which they are applied or after
their characteristic property. Cement used in construction are
sometimes named after their commonly reported place of origin, such
as Roman cement, or for their resemblance to other materials, such as
Portland cement, which produces a concrete resembling the Portland
stone used for building in Britain.

B.Water
While any potable water can be used for mixing, the amount of
water is critical for the Formation of the voids in pervious concrete.
Water-to-cement ratios can range from 0.27 to 0.30 with ratios as high
as 0.40. Careful control of water is critical. A mix design with little
water can create a very weak binder. This will create a very dry mix
that Is susceptible to spalling and Crumbling. A mix design with too
much water can collapse the void space, making an almost
impenetrable concrete surface (NRMCA 2004).

C.Fly Ash
Fly ash, also known as "pulverised fuel ash", is one of the coal
combustion products, composed of the fine particles that are driven
out of the boiler with the flue gases. Ash that falls in the bottom of the
1279

boiler is called bottom ash. In modern coal-fired power plants, fly ash
is generally captured by electrostatic precipitators or other particle
filtration equipment before the flue gases reach the chimneys.
Together with bottom ash removed from the bottom of the boiler, it is
known as coal ash.

D.Rice Husk Ash

Chemical Composition and Properties of Rice husk ash: Rice husk
can be burnt into ash that fulfils the physical characteristics and
chemical composition of mineral admixtures. Pozzolanic activity of
rice husk ash (RHA) depends on (i) silica content, (ii) silica
crystallization phase, and (iii) size and surface area of ash particles. In
addition, ash must contain only a small amount of carbon.RHA that
has amorphous silica content and large surface area can be produced
by combustion of rice husk at controlled temperature.

I. METHODOLOGY

Figure: Flow Chart of Water Absorbing Pavement By Using Porous

Concrete
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RESULT
Optimised Mix Design of Pervious Concrete (With 20mm
Aggregates, No Sand), Tested At NEC Nellore concrete technology
laboratory:
Properties of materials tested in the laboratory:
Tests on cement:
OPC-53 grade cement:
Table 4.1: Properties of cement tested at Concrete technology
laboratory
S. Property Value
No
1 Specific 3.15
gravity
2 Bulk density 1120
kg/m3
3 Fineness 225
m2/kg
4 Initial setting 35 min
time
5 Final setting 132 min
time
6 Consistency 28%
Tests on coarse aggregates: Coarse aggregates (locally available
20mm size aggregates):
Table 4.2: Properties of coarse aggregates tested at Concrete
1281

technology Laboratory
S. Property Value
No
1 Bulk density 1583.34
kg/m3
2 Impact 26.4%
strength
3 Crushing 25.45%
strength
4 Void content 37.16%
5 Specific 2.65
gravity
Tests on fine aggregates:
Fine aggregates (locally available):
Table 4.3: Properties of fine aggregates tested at Concrete technology
laboratory
S. Property Value
No
1 Specific 2.62
gravity
2 Fineness 2.5
modulus
3 Dry rodded 1720
unit weight kg/m3
4 Water absorption 0.6%

5.1 Optimised Mix Proportions

Optimised mix proportion is calculated with 20mm coarse
aggregate as standard pervious concrete: The void ratio and unit
weight are the important factors to be considered in mix design
1282

process According to mix design, the quantity of cement calculated

for one cubic meter of pervious concrete is 390 kgs based on
NRMCA,USA. The other important considerations are aggregate to
cement (A/C) ratio and water to cement (W/C) ratio. We can consider
different types of aggregates to cement ratios and water to cement
ratios as per our requirement.
The mix design procedure gave the value of cement to aggregate
ratio as 1:4.25 or approximately 1:4 for the size of aggregates passing
through 20mm and retained on 10mm IS sieve. The W/C ratio for the
pervious concrete should be in the range of 0.25 to 0.36. For the
proper workability we have selected. The W/C ratio as 0.3 and it is
fixed after doing samples with water to cement ratios o 0.25, 0.30 and
0.35. The design void ratio of pervious concrete is 20% and the unit
weight ranges from 1600 to 2100 kg/m3.
The quantities of Materials as per mix design
Cement = 390 kg/m3
Coarse aggregates = 1669.2 kg/m3
Water = 117 liters
By using pervious concrete for storm water management we can
reduce the cost of storm water management machineries like pumps,
generator (for electricity). Hence it reduces the cost of the project and
its infiltration rate is also very high, hence it reduces the time of
infiltration also. It takes only few minutes to percolate all the water in
soil and it avoids ponding of water on road in heavy rainy season. But
unlike Conventional Concrete, Pervious Concrete needs special
treatment while laying, compacting, curing and also it requires special
maintenance for durability criteria. It also requires special equipments
and sometimes it may be required to use geo-synthetic material. This
1283

makes Pervious Concrete uneconomic in terms of operational costs.

When Conventional Concrete is compared to Previous Concrete based
on criteria of cost, and other properties such as durability,
maintenance, and long term savings, Pervious Concrete is slightly on
the lower side of the Conventional Concrete.
The important observations in our project work are as follows.
1. The addition of fine aggregates in the small quantities of total

coarse aggregates and replacement of cementitious materials like

fly ash and rice husk ash has increased the compressive strength
of pervious concrete in our project.
2. The addition of fine aggregates in the small quantities of total

coarse aggregates and replacement of cementitious materials like

fly ash and rice husk ash has decreased the permeability property
of pervious concrete in our project.

CONCLUSION
• The size of coarse aggregates, water to cement ratio and
aggregate to cement ratio plays a crucial role in strength of
porous concrete.
• The void ratio and unit weight are two important parameters of
porous concrete in the context of mix design.
• Among the two methods of increasing compressive strength of
pervious concrete, the addition of fines has gave more value
when compared to replacement of cement materials.
• The addition of fines and replacement of Cement will reduce the
permeability capacity of porous concrete.