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Investigation on the properties of porous concrete as road base material

Article in Construction and Building Materials · September 2017

DOI: 10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.09.151

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 Construction and Building Materials 158 (2018) 141–148

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Investigation on the properties of porous concrete as road base material

⇑
Gelong Xu a, Weiguo Shen a,b,c, , Xujia Huo a, Zhifeng Yang d, Jing Wang e, Wensheng Zhang e, Xiaoli Ji a,c
a
School of Material Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials for Architecture, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
c
WUT-UC Berkeley Joint Laboratory on Concrete Science and Technology, Wuhan 430070, China
d
The Key Laboratory of Road Structure & Materials Ministry of Transportation, Beijing 100088, China
e
State Key Laboratory of Green Building Materials, China Building Materials Academy, Beijing 100024, China

highlights

• Porous concrete is modified by suitable content of fine aggregate and fly ash.
• A linear interrelation between effective porosity and total porosity is matched.
• A power function between coefficient of permeability and effective porosity is fitted.
• The modified porous concrete has outstanding pavement performance.

articleinfo
abstract
Article history:
Received 25 May 2017 As a kind of materials applied in road base course, porous concrete is required to have satisfactory
Received in revised form 25 August 2017 strength, permeability, dynamic stability, scouring resistance and volume stability. In this paper,
Accepted 24 September 2017 proper- ties of porous concrete modified with fine aggregate and fly ash were investigated comparing
with those of several ordinary road base materials. The results indicate that fine aggregate can improve
compressive strength and durability of porous concrete as road base material. Porous concrete,
Keywords: especially modified porous concrete with additional fine aggregate, has advantages over other road
Road base material base materials on erosion and shrinkage resistance. The image processing analysis also demonstrates
Porous concrete that fine aggregate enhances the conjoint point between the aggregates in porous concrete. And fly ash
Fine aggregate can significantly improve com- pressive strength and dry shrinkage resistance of porous concrete.
Permeability Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the total porosity of porous concrete shows a linear relation to
Pavement performance effective porosity, and a power func- tion relation exists between permeability and effective porosity.
This modified porous concrete can be used as road base course for the sponge city project and also
highway.
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
rial, the semi-rigid road base materials, e.g. cement stabilized gran-
ular materials or lime-fly ash stabilized granular materials, has not
Every summer, heavy rainfall could overwhelm the drainage
satisfactory anti-cracking and anti-erosion ability, so the water
systems of most cities in south China. On April 2, 2015, sixteen
damage become one of the most common failures of highway. Por-
cities in China have been identified by the central government to
ous concrete is studied as an alternative semi-rigid road base
participate in Sponge City pilot projects (Fig. 1) [1]. As a kind of
material which can drains out the water entering into the pave-
pervious material with a high proportion of macropores, the por-
ment structure to resolve the problem of water damage [3]. The
ous concrete has strong drainage and can recharge groundwater
physical and functional performances depend on aggregate and
to supply water resources [2], therefore, it has promising applica-
paste [4–7], and the main factors can be described as types and
tion to pavement, sidewalk and level ground. In China, high
sizes of aggregate, method of compaction, replacement of coarse
volume and overloading vehicles require the highway to have a
aggregate with sand and cement with supplementary cementitious
higher bearing capability. However, as prevalent type of road
materials (SCMs) [8–16].
base mate-
The aggregate gradation of porous concrete is a key issue affect-
ing its strength and permeability. Aggregate sized 9.5–12.5 mm
⇑ results in higher strength of porous concrete than aggregate sized
Corresponding author at: School of Material Science and Engineering, Wuhan
University of Technology, Wuhan 430070, China.
2.36–9.5 mm at the same porosity because of a higher amount of
E-mail address: shenwg@whut.edu.cn (W. Shen).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.09.151
0950-0618/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
14 G. Xu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 158 (2018) 141–148

ture 37 provides a method to predict the permeability of porous

concrete [37]. Martin III [38] considers that coefficient of perme-
ability calculated by vertical porosity distribution is more precise
than that calculated by average porosity. Permeability predicted
by Katz-Thompson equation has a higher value than permeability
experimentally measured by Sumanasooriya [39]. Some research-
ers obtain more apparent relationship of porosity and permeability
[40–42].
In this study, a type of porous concrete modified by fine aggre-
gate and fly ash was prepared as road base material. The properties
and performance of this road base material were investigated com-
paring with several ordinary road base materials. Simultaneously,
the regression analysis on the relation between porosity and coef-
ficient of permeability was studied based on 278 specimens. The
pavement performances of this porous concrete were evaluated
and the modification mechanism was interpreted with image
analysis.

2.Experiment

2.1. Materials

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of sponge city [1].
paste between conjoint points [2], while fine aggregate can
improve the distribution of cement paste and thus enhance the
compressive strength and the flexural strength [3,8,17]. In terms
of permeability, larger aggregate makes the porous concrete form
larger pores and achieve better connectivity thus better permeabil-
ity [18,19].The type of aggregate also affects the performances of
porous concrete obviously. Porous concrete prepared with air-
cooling electric arc furnace slag and steel slag as aggregate can
achieve better mechanical strength [8,20], while palm oil clinker
substituting natural aggregate decreases the compressive strength
and abrasion resistance irrespective of the curing [21].
Typically, the increase of cement paste implies the decrease in
permeability coefficient [7,22,23]. Chindaprasirt et al. [24] used
cement paste with flow of 150–230 mm to prepare porous con-
crete. Although high flowability cement paste improves the com-
pactability of porous concrete mixture, it has a tendency of
enriching to bottom and clogging the pores of the concrete.
Supplementary cementitious materials, chemical admixtures
and fibers are often used in porous concrete. The research indicates
that silicon fume particles easily concentrated over a small region,
A commercial Ordinary Portland Cement P.O 32.5 and fly ash (FA) were
selected as cementitious materials to prepare porous concrete, and the properties
are listed in Tables 1 and 2. Crushed limestone and diabase with various
gradations were used as coarse aggregate in this research, sizes of which ranged
from 2.36 to 26.5 mm. The whole kinds of coarse aggregate were used to study the
relationship of perme- ability coefficient and porosity of porous concrete. One
kind of limestone was selected to investigate the influence of fine aggregate and
FA on the porous concrete and the properties of different road base materials,
which gradation curve is shown in Fig. 2. The specific gravity of limestone was
2.72, and the dry-rodded density was 1633 kg/m3. Artificial calcareous sand as
fine aggregate mainly ranged from
0.06 mm to 4.75 mm in size, and its gradation curve is shown in Fig. 2.
2.2. Methods
2.2.1. Image processing analysis
The pore size distribution of porous concrete section was measured with
image processing analysis. As shown in Fig. 3, firstly, digital photographs were
adjusted to gray mode, thus the pictures were transformed to two-value division
by Max vari- ance, then contour tracking program was written to obtain
independent pore image, eventually, diameters and areas of pores were measured
and calculated.
2.2.2. Porosity
Total porosity is defined as the volume of closed and accessible pores. As
shown in Eq. (1), the total porosity of porous concrete can be estimated using bulk
density and theoretical density, and Zheng [43] has presented the equation to
calculate the- oretical density. The masses of oven-dry specimens (m1) were
weighed after they

which could not realize the benefit of silicon fume [17]. Together were dried at 60 °C for 24 h. The bulk volumes of specimens (v) were calculated
with diameters and heights of samples measured with Vernier caliper. Effective
with dispersion agent, silicon fume obviously improves mechanical porosity is the volume of accessible pores, which can be evaluated with Eq. (2)
properties and durability of porous concrete [13,17,25]. High- using the weight difference between a weight of oven dried specimen in air and a
strength (32–46 MPa) porous concretes were prepared by adding weight of water saturated specimen in water (m2).
silica fume, superplasticizer and polymer [26]. Furthermore, with qs
v t ¼ (1 - ) X 100 ð1Þ
q
m1 - m2
v (
¼ 1-
t
) X 100 ð2Þ
smaller sized aggregate used, t [28,29]. Latex,
much higher strength porous r polymer and fibers
con- a can efficiently
Reasonable content of rice husk s improve the
ash could enhance the s mechanical
compressive strength and tensile a properties and
strength. While not n freeze–thaw
all of pozzolanic material d durability [30–35],
can be used as and fibers also can
sumpplementary cemen- z reduce mass loss in
titious material to improve e Cantabro and
porous concrete, the o suface abrasion
mechanical prop- erties of l [34,35].
the porous concrete i The voids
marginally decreased with t content of pervious
the increased content of e concrete is usually
15–35% [36], and as
G. Xu et al. / Construction and Building Materials 158 (2018) 141–148
14
vw
drainage materials, the
interrelation between the q
porosity and permeability
Table 1
is an important issue to
Properties of Portland cement.
the material design of
porous concrete.
Neithalath [10] has Propert
studied porosity and pore
ies
structure of porous
concrete with different Retaine

sized aggregate. Litera- d on 45

lm
sieve

(%)
Normal consistency (%)
Setting time (min)
Initial
Final
Compressive strength (MPa)
7-days
28-days
Soundness Qualified
 Table 2
put in Los Angeles machine, the tester ran for 300 rounds with a speed of 30–
Properties of fly ash.
33 r/min, then the remaining mass of specimen (m 1) was weighed. If the specimen
Properties FA was smashed, the mass of largest remainder was regard as m 1. The Cantabro loss
(DS) was calculated according to Eq. (4), three parallel samples were measured
Retained on 45 lm sieve (%) 11.7
for each data point.
m0 - m1
Normal consistency (%) 2 26.0 DS ¼ X 100 ð4Þ
Specific surface area (m /kg) 620
Water content (%) 0.3 m
0 %
Water demand (%) 93
Index of reactivity (%)
7-days 82 2.2.6 Scouring resistance
28-days 90 According to the test of the scouring resistance against water flow containing
Loss on ignition (%) 4.3 sand provided in test code for hydraulic concrete (DL/T5150-2001), the ratio of
mass loss was regarded as the evaluation parameter of scouring resistance.

2.2.7. Volume stability

The specimens to determine dry shrinkage various road base material were
100
prisms of 100 mm X 100 mm X 400 mm. After the specimens were cured at tem-
Coarse aggregate perature of 20 ± 2 °C and relative humility above 95% for three days, probes of
Fine aggregate com-
80 parators with dial indicator were attached on the surface of them, then specimens
were cured at temperature of 20 ± 2 °C and relative humidity of 60 ± 5%. Mean-
while, the dry shrinkage ratios were recorded at each cured age, and three samples
Passing ratio (%)

60 were tested at each data point.

2.3. Design of experiment

40
2.3.1. Fine aggregate
The cement and coarse aggregate content were selected as 150 kg/m 3 and
20 1501 kg/m3 respectively, and the additional fine aggregate to total aggregate
ratios by mass were set as three levels (corresponding to 0%, 10% and 15%) to
study the change of pore feature of porous concrete. Applying the method of
image process- ing, pore size and its distribution in the section of specimens was
0 determined to analyze the influence of fine aggregate on inner structure of porous
0.1 1 10 100
concrete. In addition, as shown in Table 3, the mix proportion with 0% and 15%
Size (mm) additional fine aggregate were selected to illustrate the influences of fine
aggregate on the pave- ment performances of porous concrete.
Fig. 2. Gradation curve of aggregate.
2.3.2. The relationship of permeability and porosity
The 278 specimens were prepared by adjusting aggregate gradation, cement
where vt is total porosity (%); ve is effective porosity (%); qs and qt are bulk dosage, ratios of aggregate to cement (A/C) and aggregate texture to study the
density rela- tionship between the permeability and porosity of porous concrete. The mix
and theoretic density respectively (g/cm3); m1 is the mass of specimens dried at pro- portions are shown in Table 4.
tem- perature 60 °C for 24 h and m2 is the mass of specimens saturated in the
water for 24 h (g); v is volume of specimens (cm3); qw is density of water
(g/cm3). 2.3.3. The pavement performance of different concrete types
The pavement performance of porous concrete in Table 3 was compared with
2.2.3. Permeability four kind of ordinary road base materials and ordinary cement concrete (OCC).
The equipment was designed in accordance to Darcy’s law to determine The ordinary road base materials included plastic-lean concrete (PLC), dry-lean
coeffi- cient of permeability, which has been reported in literature 3 and 30. Eq. (3) con- crete (DLC), cement stabilized gravel (CSG) and cement-fly ash stabilized
was used to calculate coefficient of permeability. gravel
Q·L (CFSG). The detailed mix proportions of ordinary road base materials and ordinary
K 3
¼ ð cement concrete are shown in Table 5. Pavement performance were analysed
A · ðh1 - h 2 Þ· t
Þ including dynamic stability, scouring resistance and volume stability.

where K is coefficient of permeability (cm/s); Q is the permeating water during 3. Results and discussion
time of t (cm3); L is the vertical distance of the measuring points of piezometric
tubes (cm);
- (h1 h2) is the meaning head pressure (cm); A is cross area of the 3.1. Pore distribution
specimen (cm2).

2.2.4. Compressive strength

Specimens were prepared in cylinder mold of U150 X 150 mm, then cured at
temperature of 20 ± 2 °C and relative humility above 95%. Six specimens were
tested for each data point by unconfined compressive strength tests.
2.2.5. Dynamic stability
According to Cantabro test in the code of JTG E20-2011, the specimens were
cured in the water at 20 ± 0.5 °C for 20 h, then the water on the surface was wiped
and mass of every specimen (m0) was measured. The specimen was immediately
When the mean diameter of fine aggregate is 1/6–1/10 of that
coarser aggregate, finer aggregate can just fill the interspace of lar-
ger particles, and does not interfere the packing of coarse aggregate
[44]. Hence, cement mortar enriches around those conjoint points
between larger particles to form the structure integration, and
additional fine aggregate can increase the amount of conjoint
points to improve the properties of porous concrete.

Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of image processing of porous concrete slice.

Table 3
Mix proportions of porous concrete (kg/m 3).

Mixture ID Cement FA Coarse aggregate Additional Fine aggregate Additional fine aggregate ratio (wt%) Water

PC-1 213 0 1704 0 0% 81

PC-2 181 0 1625 0 0% 82
PC-2F 145 36 1625 0 0% 82
PC-3 181 0 1381 244 15% 100
PC-4 150 0 1501 264 15% 85
PC-4F 120 30 1501 264 15% 85

Table 4
Mix proportions to determinate the relation of permeability to porosity.

Parameters P1 P2 P3 P4 P5
W/C 0.41 0.41 0.41 0.41 0.41
A/C 8:1 10:1 10:1 10:1 8:1/10:1
Kinds of gradation 40 39 1 1 9
Lithology of aggregate Diabase Diabase Limestone Limestone Diabase
Cement content (kg/m3) 220 180 180 180 220
Specimens source Lab Lab Lab Drilled core Full scale test
Specimen quantity 91 116 30 14 27

Table 5
Mix proportions of ordinary road base materials (kg/m 3).

Mixture ID Cement FA Coarse aggregate Fine aggregate Water

PLC 140 60 1338 659 150
DLC 161 69 1400 677 115
CSG-1 141 0 1326 884 132
CSG-2 144 0 1467 763 122
CFSG-1 94.3 145 1567 551 110
CFSG-2 73.5 170 1461 600 125
OCC 340 0 1234 666 160

Fig. 4. Cross section of porous concrete with different dosage of fine aggregate.

The influence of different content of fine aggregate on pore

3.2. Permeability
structure is analyzed with the method of image processing. Fig. 4
illustrates the cross sections of porous concrete with different
Based on test results of various porous concrete specimens,
dosage of fine aggregate. In the segmented image, the white color
the relation between effective porosity and total porosity is
represents solids and the black color represents the air voids. It can
fitted. As shown in Fig. 6, the R2 value of 0.9574 shows a good
be seen that pore diameter and area decreases obviously with the
interrelation between the effective porosity and the total
increase of ratios of fine aggregate. Pore size was divided into six
porosity. The result is similar to that determined by Lian C et al.
levels, and corresponding area ratios of pore were calculated. As
[45].
shown in Fig. 5, with the increase of the additional fine aggregate
from 0% to 15%, pores larger than 7050 lm decrease from 69% to V e ¼ 1:3269V t - 9:2389 R2 ¼ 0:9574 ð5Þ
where Vt is total porosity; V is
e effective porosity.
17% and pores of 1050 lm–50 lm increase from 5% to 41%. Porous
concrete with 10% fine aggregate has more medium sized pores The relationship of coefficient of permeability to effective
than the others, while the large size pores become less than porous porosity is regressed, which shows a power function as Fig. 7 and
concrete with 0% additional fine aggregate (adding no extra fine Eq. (6).
aggregate). Whereas, excessive fine aggregate (15% additional fine
k ¼ ðv e =20:406Þ
4:756
aggregate) clogs the pores among the coarse aggregates and - 0:3894 R2 ¼ 0:8104 ð6Þ
obstructs the drainage of groundwater. Porosity and void size are
two essential factors to the permeability property. A suitable con- The regress interrelation between the effective porosity and the
tent of fine aggregate enhances the conjoint points and keep a rea- permeability coefficient is summarized in Table 6. In the porosity
sonable drainage ability. range from 15% to 35%, Eqs. (8), (9) and (11) present a linear rela-
tionship between permeability coefficient and porosity. Based on
 Fig. 5. Analysis of pore feature on the cross sections of porous concretes.
Fig. 6. The relation of total porosity and effective porosity.
a narrower range of porosity, Eq. (10) indicates that the permeabil-
ity increases exponentially with the effective porosity of porous
concrete, while Kayhanian M et al. [40] regard average porosity
(va) determined by image analysis on vertical distribution of
con-
ductive pores as the variable, a power function is obtained as Eq.
(7). The different results of previous researches may be attributed
to the statistic and the variable. Based on a comprehensive data
base of 278 specimens, a similar result was obtained to literature
40. Strictly speaking, setting average porosity of vertical conductive
pores as variable seems to be more reasonable, but it is not feasible
in practice to calculate the vertical average porosity. Herein, this
research provides a power function in which to simplify and pre-
cisely predict for the permeability of porous concrete.
3.3. Compressive strength
Bonding force of the conjoint points among the coarse aggre-
gates has indirect influence on the mechanical performance of
the pervious concrete specimens under uniaxial compression
[46]. Compressive strength is attributed to w/c, content of binder,
compaction and inner structure. High w/c and insufficient content
of paste would lead to poor bonding force of conjoint points. Fig. 8
shows the compressive strength at curing time of 7-days and 28-
days of different materials. Because of lower w/c and higher con-
Fig. 7. The relationship between effective porosity and coefficient of permeability.
tent of binder than PLC and CSG-1, DLC shows higher
compressive strength. Although porous concretes have lower
compressive strength than other road base materials as its porous
structure, compressive strength of them at 7-days can reach to 5
MPa and satisfy the demand of JTG/T F20-2015 (Chinese standard)
on road base material applied in heavy traffic highway. In
comparison to PC-1, the compressive strength of PC-4 modified
with fine aggre- gate has an increase of 5.2% at 7-days and 2.8% at
28-days respec- tively. Fig. 9 illustrates the effect of fine aggregate
and FA on the developing trend of compressive strength, it can be
seen that the compressive strength of specimens prepared with 15%
additional fine aggregate (PC-4) is 29–48% higher than those of
specimens prepared only with coarse aggregate at each curing
time. In terms of porous concrete modified with fine aggregate or
FA, there is a similar developing trend in compressive strength,
however, FA can significantly improve the compressive strength of
porous con- crete, especially at a long-term curing time. With
respect to the curing time of 180-days, there is an approximately
14% increase of compressive strength for specimens prepared
with 20% FA as replacement for cement. The compressive strength
of porous con- crete derives from bond strength of conjoint point
between parti- cles. On the one hand, additional fine aggregate and
equivalent replacement of FA for cement in weight results in
increasing con- tact area among coarse aggregate. On the other
hand, the use of FA reduces the heat of hydration to reject the
formation of micro-cracks at early curing time, and long-term
hydration of FA provides a further contribution to compressive
strength.
3.4. Dynamic stability
The Cantabro loss test is used to measure the stability of road
base materials under dynamic load. Fig. 10 shows the Cantabro loss
of different road base materials. It can be observed that DLC has
the lowest Cantabro loss value among various road base materials.
The Cantabro loss of PLC is approximately 3 times as large as that
of DLC, which is attributed to its higher water to binder ratio. The
Cantabro loss of CSG-1 are even around 4.5 times as large as that
of DLC. Because of higher fine aggregate to cement ratio, cement
paste cannot adequately coat all of aggregate in CSG-1.
Fig. 10 illustrates that the dynamic stability of porous concrete
is inferior to DLC, but better than PLC and CSG-1. The Cantabro
loss of PC-2 at curing time of 7-days (53.5%) is significantly lower
than that of PLC at curing time of 28-days (60.6%). It should be
noted that additional fine aggregate can significantly improve the
resis-
 Table 6
Comparison on the relationship of porosity and permeability with previous researches.

Eq. No. Relationship R2 Variable Statistic Unit of k

k ¼ ð20v Þ v% = ve(15–35%)
4:756
(6) - 0:3894 0.81 278 cm/s
:406
(7) [40] k ¼ 1:4 X 10-6 v 4:5 0.91 v% = va(20–32%) 12 cm/s
(8) [27] k ¼ 0:40v - 6:88 0.67 v% = vt(15–35%) 12 mm/s
(9) [27] k ¼ 0:32v - 3:11 0.87 v% = ve(15–35%) 12 mm/s
(10) [41] k ¼ 0:036e0:141v 0.93 v% = ve(20–30%) 9 cm/s
(11) [42] k ¼ 0:2927v - 4:97 0.75 v% = ve(15–30%) 6 cm/s

Fig. 8. Compressive strength of various road base materials.

Fig. 10. Cantabro loss of various road base materials.

Fig. 11. Compressive strength and erosion mass loss of different concrete types.

it can be observed that the scouring resistance present a positive

Fig. 9. The influence of fine aggregate and FA on compressive strength.
tance ability to external load. At each curing time, PC-4 has lower
Cantabro loss than PC-2. And compared with PC-1, the Cantabro
loss of PC-4 with 15% additional fine aggregate decreases by
26.8%. In the condition of all of aggregate adequately coated by
cement paste, the use of additional fine aggregate can significantly
improve the dynamic stability of porous concrete.
3.5. Scouring resistance
relation to the compressive strength. But scouring resistance is also
related to the integrity of concrete. The mass loss of CFSG and CSG
is higher than 7.5%, which is 4–9 times as large as that of porous
concrete. The aggregate cannot be effectively bound together
because excessive fine aggregate content results in the poor integ-
rity of CFSG and CSG. With regard to porous concrete, cement
paste or mortar enriches around the conjoint point of coarse
aggregate, which guarantees a high bonding strength at the
conjoint point. With the modification of 15% additional fine
aggregate, more con- joint points form between coarse aggregate,
and the results indi- cate that the mass loss of PC-3 and PC-4
decreases by 47% and 50% compared with PC-2 respectively.

Using porous concrete as road base material can solve the prob- 3.6. Dry shrinkage
lem of water damage of highway [3]. As shown in Fig. 11, scouring
resistance of various concretes was estimated according to DL/ Dry shrinkage is used to evaluate the anti-crack ability of vari-
T5150-2001 (Chinese standard). In terms of OCC, CFSG and CSG, ous road base materials. As shown in Fig. 12, dry shrinkage mainly

Fig. 12. Dry shrinkage ratios of various road base materials.
Fig. 13. The influence of FA on dry shrinkage of porous concrete.
takes place in the period of 0–14 days, and dry shrinkage ratios
tend to be stable after curing time of 28-days. OCC shows highest
dry shrinkage ratio among various kinds of concrete as its high
cement content, while porous concrete has lowest shrinkage ratio.
The dry shrinkage ratios of porous concrete are approximately 31–
45% of that of OCC, and porous concrete modified with fine aggre-
gate (PC-4) has lowest shrinkage ratio. The dry shrinkage develop-
ment of porous concrete prepared with FA is shown in Fig. 13
comparing with the ordinary porous concrete. It can be found that
FA obviously reduce the dry shrinkage ratio. However, at 70-days,
PC-2F has a dry shrinkage ratio almost 50% less than that of PC-2.
The coarse aggregate forms a skeleton structure of porous concrete,
so the dry shrinkage of the cement paste is confined by it. With the
modification of fine aggregate and FA, the thinner cement paste on
the surface of aggregate leads to lower shrinkage [47]. Further-
more, the micro-aggregate effect of FA also improves the volume
stability of porous concrete [48].
4. Conclusion
In this paper, modified porous concretes was prepared and its
mechanical property, dynamic stability, scouring resistance and
volume stability was investigated comparing with various road
base materials. Basing on large data base, the interrelation of
porosity and permeability was regressed. Following conclusions
can be drawn.
1) Fine aggregate increases the contact area of the conjoint
point among coarse aggregate to decrease the ratios of
pores that larger than 7050 lm and increase the ratios of
pores of 1050 lm–50 lm. A reasonable content of fine
aggregate should be considered to improve the conjoint
point.
2) Effective porosity has a linear relation with total porosity
and a power function with permeability coefficient respec-
tively. Compared with previous researches, this paper pro-
vides a power function with a large data base that can
preferably describe the relationship of permeability and
porosity.
3) The compressive strength of porous concrete is inferior to
that of other road base materials. However, 7 d
compressive strength of porous concrete can reach to 5
MPa with less cementitious materials, and fine aggregate
and FA is benefi- cial to improve the bond strength of
porous concrete.
4) In terms of pavement performance of porous concrete, the
Contabro loss at 28-days is only higher than dry-lean con-
crete. The mass loss under water erosion is 1/5–1/6 of that
of other road base materials. And the dry shrinkage is lowest
among the ordinary road base materials. With the modifica-
tion of fine aggregate and fly ash, above properties would
obtain significant improvements. In general, porous concrete
has favorable performances in dynamic stability, scouring
resistance and volume stability, and it, especially modified
porous concrete, presents obvious advantages as road base
course for sponge city project and highway.
Acknowledgements
This project was financially supported by the 13th Five-Year
national key research project (2016YFB0303603) and 973 Project
(2015CB655101), the Science and Technology Project of Hubei Pro-
vince Highway Administration Bureau and Scientific Project
Guangdong Province Transportation Office (2011-06-057, 2012-
02-006).
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