Journal of Wuhan University of Technology-Mater. Sci. Ed.

Jun 2008 391

DOI 10.1007/s11595-007-3391-4

The Aggregate Gradation for the Porous

Concrete Pervious Road Base Material

YANG Zhifeng 1,2, MA Wei1, SHEN Weiguo1*, ZHOU Mingkai1

(1.School of Material Science and Engineering, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan 430070;
2.Research Institute of Highway, Ministry of Communication, Beijing 100088, China)

Abstract: The effects of the proportion of fine aggregate, the maximum size of the aggregate and the
proportion of the 9.5 mm to 4.75 mm particle in the coarse aggregate on the properties of the porous concrete
are investigated. Results indicate that the porous concrete with a cement dosage only 150 kg/m3 has high
strength and satisfying permeability when the aggregate has a passing percentage of 4.75 mm around 10% to
15%, with the increase of the maximum size of the aggregate, the strength of the porous concrete decreases
and the permeability increases. When the proportion of the 9.5 mm to 4.75 mm particle in the coarse aggregate
is about 20%, there are no interference among the particles by Weymouth theory, the strength of the pervious
porous concrete reaches the peak value. The optimum continues gradation limit of the aggregate for porous
concrete pervious road base material is recommended according to the theoretical calculation and experimental
results.
Key words: aggregate gradation; porous concrete; pervious road base; maximum size; strength;
permeability

the packing aggregate [4,5]. The packing state of the

coarse aggregate depends on the gradation of the
1 Introduction aggregate and the shape and texture of the particles[6],
so gradation of aggregate in the concrete is one of the
There are universal water damages in the
main factors that controll the properties of the porous
pavements serviced for one year irrespective of the
concrete, which determines not only concrete strength
structure type of the pavements only different by
but also the permeability, and both of those properties
damage level. The water that entered in the pavement
are the main design factors of the porous concrete
structure and could not drain out is the main reason
pervious road base material. But the general pervious
that causes the water damage of the pavement material
concrete contains high (more than 200 kg/m3) cement
and structure. According to the estimation of Mathis
dosage to achieve a reasonable strength because the
in Purdue University, the pavement structure with a
poor gradation[2,3]. In this paper the influence of the
pervious road base course has 30% (Bitumen concrete
gradation factors of the aggregate such as maximum
pavement) to 50%(cement concrete pavement) longer
size, the fine aggregate content and the content of
service life than those structures without it[1]. There are
the 4.75-9.5 mm aggregate on the properties of the
three types of pervious road base course studied and
concrete are studied. According to the influence of the
applied by now, which are unbounded open gradation
aggregate gradation on the properties of the concrete
granular material, binder bounded open gradation
and the theoretical calculation, the optimized aggregate
granular material and porous cement concrete [2] .
gradation limit for porous concrete pervious road base
The porous concrete has many virtues such as high
material is recommended.
strength, low cost, low shrinkage, satisfying anti-
scouring property and etc [3]. The porous concrete
contains no or little fine aggregate, it is also referred as 2 Experimental
no-fine concrete, which is a porous structure formed
by the interlocking of the coarse aggregates, and the 2.1 Raw materials
strength formation of the porous concrete depends The cement used in this test is a P.O32.5 cement
on the bonding of the cement paste on the surface of supplied by Huaxin Cement Company, the properties of
the cement were shown in Table 1.
(Received:June,16,2007,Accepted:Apr.13,2008) The crushed stone was a kind of limestone
YANG Zhifeng (杨志峰): E-mail: zf.yang@rioh.cn ranging in size from 4.75 to 26.5 mm supplied by
*Corresponding author: SHEN Weiguo(沈卫国): Assoc. Huaxin Concrete Mixture Plant, the particle size
Research Prof.; Ph D; E-mail: shenwg@whut.edu.cn distribution of the crushed stone was illustrated in Fig 1.
Funded by the Opening Fund of the Key Laboratory of Silicate
The manufactured sand was supplied by Fugang
Material Science and Engineering, Ministry of Education (No.YSJJ
Sand Plant, the particles size distribution of the
2004-13)
392 Vol.23 No.3 YANG Zhifeng et al: The Aggregate Gradation for the Porous Concrete Perv ...
Fig.1 Grading of 4.75-26.5 mm crushed stone
Fig.2 Grading of manufactured sand
manufactured sand was illustrated in Fig 2.
2.2 Mixture proportions
The cement contents of all test mixtures were
adjusted to150 kg/m3 in this paper. The 4.75 mm sieve
passing percentages of the aggregate of test group A
were controlled varying from 2.55% to 20% by adding
different content of manufactured sand. The gradation
of the aggregate of test group B had different maximum
size varying from 19.0 mm to 31.5 mm by choosing
different kind of coarse aggregate, the 4.75 mm sieve
passing percentages in the aggregates of test group
B were adjusted to 10%. The gradations of coarse
aggregates in test group C were adjusted by using
different proportion of aggregate with size ranging
of 9.5-26.5 mm and 4.75-9.5 mm, the 4.75 mm sieve
passing percentages of the aggregates in test group C
were controlled to 10% also.
2.3 Specimens preparation
The test specimens of porous concrete were
prepared with a cylinder mold of Φ150 mm×150 mm
by vibrating on a table vibrator with 5 kg load on the
top of the cylinder, the vibrating process lasts for 40
seconds for each cylinder specimens.
2.4 Test method
The permeability of the porous concrete was
measured with equipment whose schematic is
Fig.3 Diagrammatic representation of the process of the measure-
ment of the permeability of the concrete and equipment
illustrated in Fig.3.
The permeability coefficient of the concrete is
calculated with Darcy Law described as
Q•L
KT= (1)
A•Δh•t
Where K T is the permeability coefficient at
water temperature T in cm/s, Q is the permeating
water quantity in cm 3, L is the vertical distance of
the measuring points of piezometric tubes in cm, and
the Δh is the meaning head pressure in cm, t is the
permeating time in second and A is the cross area of the
specimen in cm2.
3 Results and Discussion
3.1 The influence of fine aggregate on the
pervious concrete properties
The general pervious concrete road base material
is a kind of “no-fine concrete”, so the connecting points
among the aggregates is small and weak, 200 kg/m3
is needed to achieve 5 MPa designed compressive
strength. Adding some fine aggregate can add the
connect point and enhance the strength of the pervious
concrete. The influence of the 4.75 mm sieve passing
Fig.4 The influence of 4.75 mm sieve passing percentage on the
strength of porous concrete
 Journal of Wuhan University of Technology-Mater. Sci. Ed.
percentage in the aggregate on the compressive strength
of the porous concrete is shown in Fig.4.
From Fig.4 it is very clear that the 7 d and 28 d
compressive strengths of the concrete increase with
the increase of the 4.75 mm sieve passing percentage,
so the present of fine aggregate contributes to the
formation of the strength, the fine aggregates pack
in the voids among the coarse aggregates and the
cement paste on the surface of the aggregates conjoint
the coarse aggregates together, which increase the
bonding effect among the aggregates, so the structure
is enhanced and the strength of the porous concrete is
improved by the present of fine aggregate.
The voidages and permeabilities of the porous
concretes with different content of fine aggregate are
illustrated in Fig.5. It is very clear that the voidage
and the permeability of the porous concrete decreases
with the increase of the fine aggregate content, the
permeability decreases dramatically from 5.37 cm/s
while the 4.75 mm sieve passing percentage is 2.55% to
1.41 cm/s while the passing percentage is 20%. The fine
aggregates fill in the void among the coarse aggregates,
so the voidage decrease and the fine aggregates also
block some of the communicating voids among the
coarse aggregates. So the permeability decreases,
but the effective voidage value still remains between
20%-30% and is steadily higher than the designed
voidage index of the Porous Concrete Pervious Road
Base Material (no less than 20%). From the results of
the test group A, the passing percentage of 4.75 mm
sieve of the aggregate ranging from 10% to 15% is
suitable. When the fine aggregate is 15%, the concrete’
s strength is 40% higher than the control concrete, and
a pervious concrete with more than 6 MPa is prepared
with only 150 kg/m3 cement. To achieve this strength
200 kg/m3 is needed if the open gradation is used[3].
3.2 The effect of maximum size on the
concrete properties
The influence of the maximum size of the
Fig.5 The influence of fine aggregate content on voidage and
permeability
Jun 2008 393
aggregate on the properties of porous concrete is
shown in Table 2. It is very clear that with the increase
of the maximum size of the aggregate, the strength
of the porous concrete decreases significantly, but the
viodage and the permeability of the concrete increase
slightly. With the diameter of the aggregate increase
the connecting points between the aggregate reduces,
so the contact forces among the coarse aggregates
weakens, the strength of the porous concrete deduce,
but at the same time the communicating void size of
the porous concrete increases, the permeability of the
porous concrete increases. The suitable maximum size
for Porous Concrete Pervious Road Base Material
aggregate is 26.5 mm.
3.3 The influence of the 4.75-9.5 mm particle
Fig.6 Influence of 4.75-9.5 mm particle on compressive strength
on the properties of the porous concrete
The influence of the 4.75-9.5 mm particle on the
properties of the porous concrete is illustrated in Fig.6.
Form Fig.6 the 7 d and 28 d compressive strength
of the porous concrete have a peak value when the
4.75-9.5 mm particle percentage is 20%. A gradation
is also calculated according to Weymouth particle
interference theory . In this theory, it is supposed
that the interference phenomenon of the secondary
aggregate to the coarser aggregate would not happen
when diameter of the secondary particle is smaller
than the mean packing distance (t) among the bigger
particle, which can be described as following formula:
d
t=[( 0 )1/3-1] •D (2)
da
Where d0 is the dry-rodded volume fraction of the
aggregate mixture, da is the real volume fraction of the
aggregate and D is the mean diameter of the aggregate.
The gradations of the aggregate of test group
C and the Weymouth critical gradation are listed
in Table 3. According to the calculation, the critical
passing percentage of the interference is 34.0%. When
the passing percentage is lower than this value, the
394 Vol.23 No.3 YANG Zhifeng et al: The Aggregate Gradation for the Porous Concrete Perv ...

Table 3 Aggregate gradation with 4.75-9.5mm particle the strength deduced.

proportion and Weymouth gradation 3.4 The optimum gradation of the porous
No
Scieve size/passage/(mm/%) concrete
37.5 19 9.5 4.75 According to the results above, the suitable
C-00 100 60. 64 10.52 10 passing percentage of 4.75 mm sieve is around
C-10 100 64.42 19.01 10 10%-15%, so that the porous concrete has higher
C-20 100 68.25 27.59 10 strength and reasonable permeability. Table 4 lists two
C-30 100 72.1 36.23 10 theoretical gradation calculated with Weymouth theory
Weymouth gradation 100 63.6 34 10 and comparing with the real gradation of some test
particle coarser than 9.5 mm will pack together firmly samples. The test results of same real test sample are
without interference, so the strength increases with the listed in Table 4 also.
increase of the content of 4.75-9.5 mm particle because From Table 4 it can be found that the gradation
it increases the packing density of the aggregate and real test sample is very similar to the calculated
increases the connecting points among the coarse gradation and the test samples have high strength and
aggregate. When the passing percentage is higher, the permeability. According to the raw materials condition
packing state is interfered and the conjoint is broken so in the really application and some criterions on the

concrete decreases while the permeability increases.

c) The suitable content of 4.75-9.5 mm particle
in coarse aggregate is around 20%, so the coarser
aggregate have little interference with the secondary
aggregate, so the porous concrete has high strength and
satisfied permeability.

Fig.7 The recommended range of aggregate gradation
road base materials, an optimum gradation limit for
the porous concrete pervious road base material can
be recommended in Fig.7. Comparing with the open
gradation, this continuous gradation can prepare high
strength pervious concrete with low cement content.
4 Conclusions
a) With the increase of fine aggregate content,
the strength of the porous concrete increases whereas
the permeability of the porous concrete decreases, and
about 50 kg/m3 is of cement saved comparing with the
ordinary pervious concrete road base material.
b) With the increase of the maximum size of the
aggregate in the porous concrete, the strength of the
References
[1] Ghofoori N, Duta S. Development of No-fine Concrete
Pavement Application[J]. Journal of Transportation
Engineering, 1995, 121(3):282-288
[2] Zhen M L, Chen S F, Wang C T. The Strength Character of
the Porous Concrete[J]. Journal of ChangAn University,
2006,26(4):20-26
[3] Sun J W, Wang C T, Zhen M L,et al. Pervious Road Base
and It’s Physical and Mechanic Properties[J]. Highway,
2006(8):341-345
[4] Liu X J, Gao J M, Li B H. The Influence of the Gradation of
Coarse Aggregate on the Properties of Porous Concrete[J].
China Concerete and Cement Products, 2005(5):11-13
[5] Marlof A, Neithalath N, Sell E, et al. The Influence of Aggregate
Gradation on the Sound Absorption of Enhanced Porosity
Concrete[J]. ACI Materials Journal, 2004,101(1):82-91
[6] P K Mehta, P C Aitcin. Principles Underlying Production of
High-performance Concrete[J]. Concrete and Aggregate,
1990,12(2):71-75