Accepted Manuscript

Analyzing the effects of clogging of PA internal structure with artificial soiling

experiments

Stefan Alber, Wolfram Ressel, Pengfei Liu, Guoyang Lu, Dawei Wang, Markus
Oeser

PII: S2046-0430(19)30053-X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijtst.2019.06.001
Reference: IJTST 112

To appear in: International Journal of Transportation Science and

Technology

Received Date: 15 April 2019

Revised Date: 31 May 2019
Accepted Date: 14 June 2019

Please cite this article as: S. Alber, W. Ressel, P. Liu, G. Lu, D. Wang, M. Oeser, Analyzing the effects of clogging
of PA internal structure with artificial soiling experiments, International Journal of Transportation Science and
Technology (2019), doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijtst.2019.06.001

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Analyzing the effects of clogging of PA internal structure with artificial
soiling experiments
Stefan Alber1, Wolfram Ressel1, Pengfei Liu2 , Guoyang Lu2, Dawei Wang3,2 *, Markus
Oeser2
1 Institute for Road and Transport Science, University of Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 7,
D70569 Stuttgart, Germany;
2 Institute of Highway Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Mies-van-der-Rohe-Street 1,

D52074 Aachen, Germany;

3 School of Transportation Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, 150090

Harbin, PR China;
* Corresponding Author:
D. Wang, Prof. Dr.-Ing., Tel: +49-241-8022780, Fax: +49-241-8022141; Email:
wang@isac.rwth-aachen.de

ABSTRACT

Clogging of porous asphalt (PA) pavements as a result of long-term soiling effects is a well-
known phenomenon in road construction. This kind of deterioration effect causes a gradual
loss of noise reduction and drainage which are the extraordinary functional properties of PA.
In order to quantify and better understand the impacts of soiling on PA properties a
methodology of systematic artificial soiling experiments is presented in this paper in detail.
Different questions concerning the methodology and the whole testing set-up like dirt
composition and application, artificial rainfall or dirt trapping facilities are discussed with a
special glance at the laboratory testing conditions which take place in a controlled way to be
comparable and as close to reality as possible, feasible and useful. Some demonstrative
results of the artificial soiling tests like wash-out of dirt or the impacts on pore structure,
drainage and sound absorption (as part of the noise-reducing effect) are shown exemplarily
and/or referenced.

Keywords

porous asphalt; artificial soiling experiments; acoustical properties; drainage properties; pore
structure

INTRODUCTION

Porous asphalt (PA) is a material in road construction with extraordinary properties

concerning drainage and noise reduction. These functional properties are based on the high
interconnected air void content of usually above 20 %. Water can infiltrate and drain through
the porous structure and reduce the danger of hydroplaning. Moreover, compared to a dense
surface, the water runoff is also slowed down by PA. This is because of the water retention
effect (e.g. Kayhanian et al., 2019), which porous structures show in general. Air can
infiltrate as well into the PA layer, which leads to the effect of noise reduction. Thus, noise
depending on aerodynamical effects between tire and pavement surface, such as air pumping,
can be lowered effectively (Sandberg & Ejsmont, 2002; Winroth et al., 2017). Another major
effect of noise reduction is sound absorption, which is only possible if air can infiltrate into
the porous structure (Alber 2013; Wang et al, 2017). Both noise-reducing effects are the more
effective the more interconnected air void content there is in the PA layer.

However, these advantages are accompanied by some problems as well, which are also
caused by the high air void content. Air and water infiltrating the PA have a higher ageing
effect on the binder within the porous structure, which can cause earlier deterioration effects
compared to dense asphalt structures (Lu et al, 2019). Furthermore, the grain skeleton, which
only interlinks individual grains at certain points, can suffer from ravelling effects (Hu et al,
2018; Opara et al, 2016) caused in particular by high and repeated shear forces.

Soiling and clogging are other typical deterioration effects of PA, which do not affect the
structural and material behaviour as such, but rather the functional properties of noise
reduction and drainage. The soiling process is of practical and scientific interest since PA has
been used in road construction. It has been considered in several empirical studies (Hamzah
et al., 2013; Barrett & Shaw, 2007). They either deal with clogging processes in pavements
that are in use and under traffic over a period of years (Bendtsen & Raaberg, 2007) or
describe laboratory experiments. Laboratory tests have the advantage that parameters like
water infiltration or dirt quantities can be defined systematically and results can thus be
compared more easily. Moreover, accelerated testing – i.e. simulating a process in a shorter
time than it lasts in reality – is a further positive aspect of any lab methodology. However,
accelerated tests always suffer more or less from a reality gap (Liu et al., 2017; Otto et al.,
2018). Therefore, the laboratory tests should reflect the reality as closely as possible. For this
reason, this paper focuses on the compounding of artificial dirt and on the design of artificial
rainfall.

Most studies dealing with soiling and clogging effects of PA have an empirical character.
Although there are some approaches of modelling the water runoff within the PA (Ranieri et
al., 2014; Huang et al., 2016), the question of modelling dirt transport, particle deposition and
accumulation has only been focused on in few studies.

In principle, there are two different types of porous pavements. Completely permeable ones
have several permeable layers and so the rain water can drain through the pavement down to
the underground. The other common construction has a top porous layer, while the other
layers below are impermeable. The main part of water runoff thus takes places at the lower
edge of the top (porous) layer and follows the slope of the pavement and flows out at the edge
of the paved surface. In this study the second type is focused on. This paper presents a
possible methodology of artificial soiling experiments and the considerations of experimental
design in detail and some demonstrative results which can be derived from the proposed
experimental set-up.

MATERIAL

The demonstrative results which are presented in this paper have been made with the
following materials and structures (see Table 1). They represent typical PA layers of different
coarseness and layer thicknesses, including twinlay structures.

Table 1 Volumetric properties of the different PA types used in the study (Alber, 2013;
Ressel et al., 2012; Alber et al., 2018a)
 Mix type PA 8 PA 11 Twinlay PA 8/PA 16 Twinlay PA 5/PA 11

bottom layer top layer bottom layer top layer

Layer - -
(PA 16) (PA 8) (PA 11) (PA 5)

Layer thickness
4.0 4.0 4.5 2.5 4.5 2.5
[cm]

Void content
25.3 27.2 27.7 25.3 27.7 25.1
[Vol.-%]

Binder content
6.3 6.3 6.1 6.3 6.3 6.6
PmB 45 A [M.-%]

Mix design / gradation [M.-% by mass of aggregates]

0-0.09 mm 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7

0.09-0.25 mm 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3

0.25-2.0 mm 3.4

2.0-5.6 mm 4.5 4.5 87.9

5.6-8.0 mm 87.3 5.5 87.3 5.5 4.7

8.0-11.2 mm 4.2 87.4 4.1 4.2 87.4

11.2-16.0mm 3.1 87.6 3.1

16.0-22.4 mm 4.3

METHODOLOGY OF TESTING AND EVALUATION

The artificial soiling tests presented in this study aim to show the changes in the internal
structure of PA, the dirt trapping behaviour and the effects of the soiling procedure on functional
properties, such as drainage and sound absorption.

Testing device

The testing device comprises a carrier for different asphalt samples of 2.5 m² (2.5 m length and
1.0 m width). The samples were produced within steel tubs in a laboratory using a small roller
and can be put into the testing device respectively the carrier. Thus, the PA samples in their
various steel tubs are exchangeable (see Figure 1). Before paving, the steel tubs have been
prepared like a real SAMI layer (spraying of bitumen emulsion and spreading of coarse
aggregate), which is often the base for a PA layer. So the bottom of the PA is impervious and
rough – similar to reality.
Figure 1 Experimental set-up and design of test device for artificial soiling tests (Alber,
2013; Ressel et al, 2012; Alber et al. 2018a)

Furthermore, the testing device has a set-up for artificial raining with overall 6 sprinkling
nozzles (2 in the front, 2 in the middle and 2 in the back, see Figure 1). The water runoff is
collected within two separate gutters at the lower edge of the PA sample. One gutter is for the
runoff which takes place at the bottom of the PA layer after the water has infiltrated into the PA
layer. This runoff is exemplarily shown with white-coloured water in Figure 2a. The second
gutter collects runoff from the PA surface as far as it appears. Runoff from the surface is
expected to appear only if the PA is strongly clogged or if there is an overflow related to very
high amounts of water during “heavy simulated rainfall”.

The gutters conduct water and dirt, which is transported by the water runoff, into two separate
collection containers (see Figure 1 and Figure 2b and 2d). The containers have a pyramidal
shape. Thus, the dirt moves more easily to the bottom of the container by sedimentation, where
it is collected in dirt trap reservoirs (see Figure 1, Figure 2c and 2d). The reservoir has two water
taps that make it easy to empty the reservoir and collect the trapped and deposited dirt (including
a small volume of water which is related to the reservoir’s size). The container collecting the
runoff from the bottom of the PA layer is additionally equipped with a pressure sensor at its
bottom (see Figure 2c and 2d, left edge of the container) that measures the hydrostatic pressure
over time (one value per second). Taking the pyramidal shape into account, the water volume
can be calculated from the hydrostatic pressure. This is also cross-checked by a calibration with
defined volumes of water. So there is a very high-resolution recording of the time-dependent
water runoff.
 (a) (b)

(c) (d)
Figure 2 Pictures depicting parts of artificial soiling testing methodology

Artificial dirt composition

In order to have a testing methodology as close to reality as possible, it is important to think

about the artificial dirt to be used for the test. It should be realistic, but also well-defined and
available in bigger amounts. That is why real road dirt, which may be derived from cleaning
measures, has not been considered as an adequate methodological approach for the soiling tests.
Thus, it has been decided to mix artificial dirt where the composition and the properties of the
composites are known.

Depending on the local situation (e.g. surrounding area, ground level evaluation, season, , traffic
volume and speed, agricultural traffic) the composition of road dirt can vary quite strongly. In
addition, various amounts of abrasion of tire and pavement, grain particles, dirt from the
surrounding area, fuel and lubricants, pollutants, salt, other organic parts (from leaves, animals
or soil particles from the surrounding area) can be part of the road dirt. In order to simplify the
search for “typical”, average road dirt the composition of artificial dirt has been focused on grain
size distribution and basic chemical composition (organic vs. mineral components).

Studies on road dirt mainly analyse three different original materials: dirt from dry sweeping,
dirt from cleaning procedures of PA and roadside soil material from the shoulders that has been
scraped off. These three types of dirt are supposed to have different compositions depending on
the dirt transport and deposition processes shown in Figure 3.

Dirt from dry sweeping is influenced by process (1), (3) and (5) in Figure 3; dirt from the inside
of PA depends on effects (2) and (6); roadside material from the shoulder is based on processes
(4), (5), (6) and (7). Thus, it is evident that original road dirt is not completely comparable to
each of the three kinds of analysed dirt described above.
Figure 3 Transport and deposition processes of road dirt (after Alber, 2013)

Different literature results (Ott & Jager, 2005; Roos & Holldorb, 2007; Gallenkemper et al.,
1993) that describe and analyse the different kinds of dirt, especially the grain size distribution,
are shown in Figure 4. It is remarkable that despite the different origins of the road dirt the grain
size distributions are quite similar. The dirt originally deposited on a road surface might not
differ too much from the analyses of the different kinds of dirt. Therefore it should be a good
basis for the composition of artificial dirt.

The composition and grain size distribution of the artificial dirt has anyway been chosen finer
than the analyses of the real dirt types. This should take into account that dirt deposited on the
road surface originally might be finer than that recovered by cleaning. The reason is that a
certain amount of finer components might be transported elsewhere (processes (2), (3), (4), (5)
and (6) in Figure 3) and are thus not represented in real dirt from cleaning (the first and second
dirt types) any more. Particularly with regard to the finer roadside material from the shoulder
(see Figure 4), the hypothesis of a finer composition of the artificial dirt is supported.
Figure 4 Grain size distributions of road dirt from different origins and resulting grain
size distribution of composed artificial dirt (after Alber, 2013; original sources: Ott &
Jager, 2005; Roos & Holldorb, 2007; Gallenkemper et al., 1993; Ressel et al., 2012)

The amount of dirt which annually occurs on road surfaces is another point of interest for
artificial soiling tests. Bald et al. (2005) have examined an annual amount of between 20 and
192 g/m² collected by sweeping procedures. A value slightly above the average of this interval
would be about 120 g/(m²*a), which was considered a good assumption for the presented
artificial soiling tests.

However, other authors found an annual amount of dirt between 20 g/m² (Weyringer, 1991;
Roos & Holldorb, 1997) and 100 g/m² (Roos & Holldorb, 1997) from cleaning procedures of
PA up to an assumed total annual amount of about 400 g/m² (Ott & Jager, 2005). A summary of
the literature findings concerning the amount of dirt is also given in Alber (2013).

Regarding the chemical properties, the artificial dirt has been composed of 92 % mineral and 8
% organic components. As mineral aggregates 40 % (by mass of aggregates) very fine quartz
powder, 30 % quartz sand (maximum aggregate size of 0.5 mm) and 30 % coarser sand
(maximum aggregate size of 2 mm) have been used. The organic part consists of (rather coarser)
real tire abrasion particles and (finer) unburned carbon. An impression of the artificial dirt is
given in Figure 5a.

Road salt has only been applied additionally in some defined soiling steps in order to investigate
the wash-out behaviour of the salt. Another point of interest would have been whether salt
increases clogging and soiling because of a (supposed) gluing effect of salt on fine mineral
aggregates. This has not been considered in these tests as it would have caused too many
variations in the whole testing cycle.

A certain amount of dirt is applied on the PA surface and distributed equally by hand in the test
set-up in every soiling step (see Figure 5b). Depending on the testing sequence 60 g/m², 140
g/m² or 210 g/m² are applied in a single soiling step. The dirt applications are chosen according
to the heaviness of artificial rainfall (see section “Testing sequences combining soiling and
raining”).

(a) (b)
Figure 5 Appearance of artificial dirt (a); application of artificial dirt on a PA surface in
the testing device (b) (Alber et al., 2018a)

Artificial rainfall procedure

There are 6 sprinkling nozzles distributed over the PA sample (2 in the front, 2 in the middle and
2 in the back) in a height of 1.8 m above the PA surface (see Figure 1). Two different nozzle
types (one of each type at each of the three positions) with different flow rates at certain water
pressures are used. The nozzles can be activated individually and automatically with a control
unit, thus the intensity of artificial rainfall can be controlled and defined. The control unit can
define duration and beginning of rain sequences. The volume of water which flows through the
nozzles is also measured with an inductive flow meter during the rain sequences. So the whole
set-up and design of artificial raining is quite flexible.

The arrangement of the nozzles provides an almost equal distribution of water respectively
rainfall among the PA sample. The rain intensity related to a certain area (e.g. l/m²) is therefore
almost constant. This was checked with vessels distributed on the surface, the water volume of
which was checked after a rainfall procedure. The aim of equal distribution and the arrangement
of the nozzles have the effect that not the entire sprinkled volume of water reaches the PA
surface. A certain amount is lost and collected with splash guards and gutters around the PA
sample.

Within a testing procedure, carried out before the soiling tests, it was studied which part of the
water reaches the surface and which part gets lost. The PA surface was covered with a foil in
order to observe the amount of water being applied to the surface. The test has been repeated
from time to time throughout the testing cycle of different PA samples to check whether
undesired changes appear.

For the soiling tests, two different raining procedures (consisting of raining and break intervals)
were applied, which are also described in Alber (2013). The two different procedures should
simulate a rather weak rainfall (averaged over time) and a rather strong rainfall (see Table 2). It
has to be considered that the rainfall simulation consists only of two exemplary different rain
intensities, although rain events in reality differ quite strongly in occurrence, intensity, duration
and overall sum in different regions. The two exemplary raining procedures have been chosen in
order to make the results and analyses as comparable as possible.
Table 2 Artificial raining procedures (after Alber, 2013)
Raining procedure 1 Raining procedure 2
Characterisation “weak rainfall” “strong rainfall”
Sequence 1 minute raining 1 minute raining
with 0.8 mm/min with 1.5 mm/min
break of 60 minutes (short) break of 2 minutes
raining repeated 8 times raining repeated 4 times
- (long) break of 15 minutes
- 1 minute raining
with 1.5 mm/min
- (short) break of 2 minutes
- raining repeated 4 times
Overall duration 7 hours (420 minutes) 35 minutes
Overall amount of water 6.4 mm (= 6.4 l/m²) 12 mm
Average rain intensity - 0.35 mm/min (including long break)
0.6 mm/min (excluding long break)

The artificial raining procedures flush the dirt, which is applied to the surface, into the PA
structure which is depicted in Figure 6.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 6 Artificial rainfall of one minute duration with 1.5 mm/min (see also Table 2) in
sequential order from the beginning (a) to the end (c) after having applied artificial dirt
(after Alber et al., 2018a)

Testing sequences combining soiling and raining

The different testing sequences consist of several single soiling steps each followed by a raining
procedure (see Table 2), an interval of drying, a heat application and another drying interval (see
Table 3).
Table 3 shows the different soiling steps exemplarily for a soiling state of 960 g/m². The soiling
state of 480 g/m² is reached by applying 60 g/m² of dirt in 8 steps; the soiling state of 1440 g/m²
is reached by applying 210 g/m² in 6 steps and 60 g/m² in 3 steps. The dirt application for (weak)
raining procedure 1 is always 60 g/m² while it is increased for (strong) raining procedure 2 to
140 g/m² (for the final soiling state of 960 g/m²) and 210 g/m² (for the final soiling state of 1440
g/m²). The testing sequence which reaches a final soiling state of 480 g/m² uses a constant
amount of 60 g/m² for each soiling step independent of the raining procedure.
Table 3 Testing sequence for a final soiling state of 960 g/m² (after Alber, 2013)
Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Soiling Step 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Dirt application 60 140 140 140 60 140 140 140 0
[g/m²]
Raining procedure [-] 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 1
Interval to heat 7 12.5 12.5 12.5 7 12.5 12.5 12.5 -
application [h]
Heat application [h] 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 -
Interval to next 9 10 10 10 9 10 10 10 -
raining procedure [h]

The heat application in the drying period lasts about an hour (see Table 3) with included short
breaks and is realized with two heating lamps of 1.8 kW each in a distance of about 1.2 m to the
PA surface. The heat application should accelerate the drying procedure and influence the
deposition of soil and the possible gluing process between dirt and the (softened) bitumen films
with higher temperatures.

Three different testing sequences are applied to reach three different final soiling states at the
end of the testing sequence. The final soiling states after a whole testing sequence should
represent a certain lifetime of the PA layer in reality. The final soiling states of the three
different testing sequences are 480 g/m², 960 g/m² and 1440 g/m². In comparison to the
supposed value of 120 g/m² per year (see section “Artificial Dirt Composition”) this would
represent 4, 8 or 12 years of life time. In order to get an impression of the severeness of clogging
and soiling of the different soiling states three exemplary pictures are given in Figure 7.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 7 Different (final) soiling states of a PA8 surface after artificial soiling test: 480
g/m² (a), 960 g/m² (b) and 1440 g/m² (c)

The testing sequence for a final soiling state of 960 g/m² is given exemplarily in Table 3. The
sequences for the other final soiling states of 480 g/m² and 1440 g/m² differ slightly regarding
the amount of dirt per soiling step and the sequential order of raining procedures.

It has to be mentioned additionally that the soiling tests cannot simulate the influence of traffic
and rolling tires which is supposed to have a cleaning effect. So in these tests it is rather the
uninfluenced soiling process of an untraveled lane of the road (e.g. emergency lane). It
represents rather a bad case and therefore delivers rather conservative results.

Measuring methods to address the effects of soiling

Beneath changes in drainage further effects in acoustical behaviour and morphological changes
have been expected. Therefore, acoustical parameters were measured and the 3D structure was
analysed using XRCT technology.

The sound absorption behaviour has been measured with an on-site measurement equipment on
the 2.5 m² samples. So it is not necessary to take drill cores and thus a non-destructive
measurement at the same sample is possible regarding different soiling states. The measurement
of sound absorption is done in a similar way to the methodology of ISO 13472-1:2002, but with
an alternative measurement equipment developed and provided by the company Müller-BBM
(Germany). Furthermore, the flow resistivity has been determined. It can deliver information
about air infiltration capabilities which are relevant for noise reducing effects of PA. The
measurement equipment used in this study (developed by Beckenbauer & Altreuther, 2004) can
be used on-site and is non-destructive as well.

XRCT analyses deliver 3D images of the inner structure of PA by X-radiation. X-rays are
absorbed to a different extent depending on the material properties, mainly density. Using grey
scale analysis stones, soiling material, bitumen and air can be distinguished in the images and
differences between soiled and unsoiled specimen (e.g. location of dirt deposition) can be
determined. Different steps of image processing improve the picture quality and make it easier
to analyse the structure.

DEMONSTRATIVE RESULTS

Some demonstrative results from the artificial soiling tests are presented in this chapter to show
some interesting facts and analysis possibilities of the experiments.

Amount of dirt (and salt) flushed out

It has been analysed to which extent the dirt that has been applied to the PA surfaces is flushed
out again by the artificial raining procedure. In this context, it is also useful to know how much
dirt is retained by the porous structure as a kind of filter.

Sedimentation and filtering analyses have been done by a partner company (Müller BBM,
former OrgaLab) using water samples taken from the dirt trapping reservoir for each soiling
step. Another water sample has been taken from the collection container in order to have
additional information about non-sedimentable parts of the dirt.

Thus, three fractions of dirt (particle sizes) can be distinguished: sedimentable (coarse)
components, filtrate (fine) components and the filtrate residue (see Figure 8a). The filtrate
residue consists of the very fine particles of the dirt that even pass the filter and is derived by a
controlled evaporation of the filtered water.
 (a) (b)
Figure 8 Total amounts of dirt (a) and salt (b) washed out of the PA by artificial raining
during soiling tests (demonstrative results) (after Ressel et al, 2012)

In Figure 8a it can be seen that only a small part of the dirt that has been applied on the PA is
washed out again. The discharge of dirt is about 1 % to 2 %, mainly in the (very) fine fraction.
The structure and coarseness of the four different PA layers shown in Figure 8a does not
influence the discharge in a significant way. So a huge amount of dirt has been held back by the
PA which, in fact, shows the behaviour of a dirt filter.

For the soiling process itself and its negative connotations (decline of acoustical and drainage
properties) this is a problem, as the dirt is not washed out again by rain, but stays within the PA
structure. However, this is also a chance for PA pavements to be used as a filter for pollutants
and thus cleaning water runoff from roads.

Road salt has also been applied to PA in order to simulate winter maintenance and its
implications on soiling. Salt is dissolved in water and transported into the PA structure. The
question regarding soiling is whether it is kept back and thus contributes to the soiling of PA or
whether it is washed out again by water. The results of this study show that salt is almost
completely flushed out again with the artificial rain (see Figure 8b). The reason may be that the
salt is water soluble and can therefore easily be washed out again and it almost does not remain
in the porous structure. So it can be supposed that – regarding these tests – salt from winter
maintenance does not contribute to the soiling process of PA to a great extent. However, it
should be mentioned that up to 10 % of the salt (see Figure 8b) is kept back in some cases which
might significantly influence the soiling process due to its “gluing” effect on other dirt particles
during crystallizing.

Acoustical properties

Regarding the acoustical properties of PA, soiling leads to a decline of noise-reducing effects,
which can be quantitatively shown by the artificial soiling test.

Firstly, flow resistivity increases with increasing soiling, because the surface and the pores get
more and more narrowed and finally clogged and the air can no longer infiltrate that easily into
the PA layer. The measurements show that flow resistivity is a very sensitive parameter for
soiling effects and thus even shows small changes in the PA structure. Flow resistivity shows
higher increases with finer structures and single-layer samples, which means that the clogging
tendency and thus the decline of noise reduction is higher for finer and thinner PA structures. A
detailed quantitative analysis is given in Alber et al., 2018a.
Secondly, the sound absorption behaviour – as important noise reducing effect of PA – shows
significant changes with increasing soiling states. Sound absorption is not a single parameter; it
is represented by a curve showing the degree of sound absorption α (0 ≤ α ≤ 1; 0 = complete
reflection, 1 = complete absorption of sound) dependent on the frequency f (see Figure 9a, solid
line). An unsoiled, new PA shows a typical curve with one (or theoretically more) relative
maxima. The frequency f of the first maximum and the related value of α is a possible descriptor
for changes in sound absorption behaviour because of soiling. Typical effects observed in the
artificial soiling tests in this study are decreasing sound absorption degrees α and shifts of the
first maximum in frequency f. These tendencies are illustrated exemplarily in Figure 9a
(differently dashed lines). In this study the first maximum tends to shift to lower frequencies
(while the degree of sound absorption decreases as well) with increasing soiling. This effect can
be explained by changes in acoustical parameters like structure factor and tortuosity resulting
from changes of the PA structure by soiling (Alber et al., 2018a and 2018b). A more detailed
analysis and interpretation of changes in acoustical behaviour for the different PA structures is
given in Alber et al. (2018a).

(a) (b)
Figure 9 Effects of soiling of PA structures on sound absorption behaviour (a); general
drainage/runoff behaviour of PA after the end of a rainfall (b)

Drainage properties

The drainage properties and the runoff through the porous structure are supposed to suffer from
soiling. It is well-known and has been shown in several studies from literature that parameters
describing the drainage behaviour, like infiltration rates (Winston et al., 2016) and
permeability/hydraulic conductivity (Fwa et al., 2015), decrease with increasing soiling states.

Water retention behaviour, time-dependent discharge of water, development of discharge rates

over time after a rain event and delay of runoff are some further parameters related to the
drainage behaviour which have not yet been studied so intensively with regard to PA. An
exemplary time-dependent runoff curve after a single rain event on a dry PA area shows these
effects and parameters in Figure 9b.
Pore structure

The geometrical and morphological changes in the pore structure of PA directly influence
properties like sound absorption and drainage. In order to study relationships between the pore
structure and the functional parameters of PA pavements, the porous structures have to be
analysed and described by different parameters which is done by XRCT analyses of some
specimens (drill cores) from unsoiled and soiled PA samples.
The statistical frequency distribution of (air void) pore diameters of a PA structure can describe
the coarseness of the structure. For instance, coarser PA structures (with higher maximum
aggregate sizes) tend to have higher pore diameters and a subsequent statistical distribution than
finer ones. The changes of pore size distribution related to soiling tests show different trends.
On the one hand, the relative frequency of smaller pore sizes can decrease. Simultaneously, the
relative frequency of bigger pore sizes naturally increases. A possible interpretation could be
that small pores are filled with dirt in an initial state of the soiling process and thus the number
of small pores decreases (see also Alber et al., 2018b). On the other hand, Arbter (2014) has
identified another contradictory effect. In this case the soiling process caused a relative increase
of smaller pore sizes. This can be explained by constrictions of small pores by dirt deposition.
This would mean that small pores tend to get more narrow/smaller but are not clogged
completely. Moreover, the 3D fractal dimension (3DFD) of the air void structure has been
analysed (see also Alber et al., 2018b) according to a method developed by Hu et al., (2018). An
increase of 3DFD can depend either on bigger pore volumes or more complex pore geometries
(see Hu et al., 2018). The results presented in Alber et al. (2018b) show that the values of PA
samples tend to be higher (2.5 to 2.7) compared to dense asphalts, e.g. SMA (1.6 to 2.3,
according to Hu et al., 2018). That means that PA pore structure has a more complex geometry
and/or bigger pores. A dependency of 3DFD on soiling effects cannot be derived from the few
number of specimens (see Alber et al., 2018b).
The number of investigated samples in these two studies cannot deliver representative results
and reliable generalized interpretations yet. But the possible interpretations of soiling impacts
can be shown by these demonstrative results.

CONCLUSION

Soiling is a major problem of porous pavements because the key functions, like noise reduction
and drainage properties, decrease over the years. A quantification and analysis of the soiling and
clogging is therefore an important step towards a better understanding of the effect itself and a
basis for possible countermeasures and the prediction of (acoustical and hydraulic) life time. In
order to get quantitative relationships and a comparison of different structures it is necessary to
have equal and constant test conditions. Artificially controlled soiling tests in combination with
defined artificial rainfall simulation can provide such conditions: These conditions have to be
adjusted to reality, e.g. regarding the laboratory feasibility of dirt application and raining
procedures.

A possible methodology fulfilling these requirements is presented in this paper in detail. The
composition of artificial dirt, the experimental set-up as a whole, artificial rainfall arrangement
and the collection of water and dirt for further analyses are discussed based on the idea of having
a both realistic (as far as possible) and feasible testing facility.

Some demonstrative results concerning wash-out behaviour of dirt and salt from winter
maintenance as well as effects of soiling on the (geometrical) pore structures and the important
functional properties of sound absorption (as part of noise-reducing capabilities) and drainage
are presented in extracts.

Acknowledgements

The work underlying this paper was carried out under the research grant number FOR 2089,
on behalf of the grant sponsor, the German Research Foundation (DFG). The described
soiling experiments and parts of measurements/evaluations have been done in a sub-project
of the joint project “Leiser Straßenverkehr 2” on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of
Economy and Technology.

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