Construction and Building Materials 101 (2015) 317–325

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Construction and Building Materials

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

Optimizing pervious concrete pavement mixture design

by using the Taguchi method
Alireza Joshaghani ⇑, Ali Akbar Ramezanianpour, Omid Ataei, Amir Golroo
a
Department of Civil Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, 424 Hafez Ave, Tehran 15875-4413, Iran

h i g h l i g h t s

The purpose of this study is to evaluate mechanical properties of previous concrete.

Taguchi design of experiments was used to optimize the performance.

Strength of previous concrete depends on total void ratio.

The void ratio of specimens is slightly higher for larger size aggregates.

The most influential control factors in compressive strength is the paste content.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Pervious concrete is a sustainable pavement with high permeability. The purpose of this study is to
Received 11 May 2015 evaluate physical and mechanical properties of the pervious concrete including density, strength,
Received in revised form 30 August 2015 porosity, and permeability. Taguchi design of experiments was used to optimize the performance of these
Accepted 16 October 2015
characteristics. The relationship between properties dependent on coarse aggregate size. As the maxi-
mum size of the coarse aggregate increases, both the permeability and porosity grows up. Also, it results
in a significant decrease in compressive strength. There is a trade-off between strength and permeability
Keywords:
which should be considered to meet the minimum requirements for the pervious concrete.
Pervious concrete
Taguchi approach
Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Coarse aggregate
Strength
Permeability
Porosity
Mixture design

1. Introduction Most importantly from a pavement engineers’ perspective, having

‘‘Pervious concrete” is a term that is applied to zero-slump
material that allows water to infiltrate through it and be recharged
as ground-water which consists of portland cement, coarse aggre-
gate, little or no fine aggregate, water, and admixtures. These
ingredients produce hardened concrete with connected voids.
Pervious concrete pavement (PCP) plays a substantial role in
stormwater management and water quality control. Researchers
have realized that runoff has potential to impact on surface and
groundwater supplies. As urban regions are developed, impervious
areas increase, which results in downstream flooding and bank
erosion. Not only does PCP reduce the effect of land development
by diminishing the runoff, it also protects water supplies [1].
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: Joshaghani@aut.ac.ir (A. Joshaghani), aaramace@aut.ac.ir
(A.A. Ramezanianpour), omid.ataei@aut.ac.ir (O. Ataei), agolroo@aut.ac.ir (A. Golroo).
a reduced amount of runoff may improve the level of road safety
[25]. Also, pervious concrete has several other beneficial specifica-
tions such as reducing noise, minimizing heat, protecting native
ecosystems, recharging ground water, and protecting tree growth.
Adequate pervious pavement infiltration can also reduce the need
for sewer facilities. PCP may reduce the potential for legal prob-
lems for an owner or developer by reducing the need for stormwa-
ter ponds and subsequent safety [13].
Nowadays, many places around the world experience raining
with ponding consequence. It is caused by combination of
increased rainfall and reduced permeability in urban regions. To
solve this problem, it is necessary to reduce various environmental
problems occurring around residential regions. Different
approaches can be used to meet achieving the new Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) standards. Urbanization significantly
affects ground water recharge as runoff resulted from rainfall
amplifies with imperviousness. Impervious surfaces need to be

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.10.094
0950-0618/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
318 A. Joshaghani et al. / Construction and Building Materials 101 (2015) 317–325

These mixture designs generally possess high permeability and

Define the problem and objective
Indentify control factors and levels
Design matrix experiments and select
orthogonal array
Design a fitness function
Determine the number of specimens in each
mixture and conduct experiment
Conduct tests (compressive, tensile and
flexural strength, permeability and porosity)
Identify optimal values
Analysis data and determine an optimum
level for factors
Validate the experiment
Fig. 1. Research methodology.
controlled to maintain the natural quality and quantity of recharge.
Pervious concrete can keep natural hydrologic infiltration rates on
developed lands. It is a sustainable technology and can be used for
the low volume roads such as parking lots, driveways, and walk-
ways. As the primary advantages of pervious concrete is its ability
to rapidly infiltrate water, developing a suitable mix design for per-
vious concrete is essential before deploying this technology as an
alternative pavement option. The major drawback of pervious con-
crete is its lower compressive, flexural strength, and clogging by
fine materials compared to conventional concrete and cost of
maintenance and cleaning is high for the pervious concrete [15].
By applying cleaning methods such as sweeping and pressure
washing, little debris removed from the surface and the infiltration
increase significantly [20]. The goal of this paper is to optimize per-
vious concrete mix design. The Taguchi method is utilized in order
to determine optimal parameters for designing of pervious con-
crete pavement.
2. Literature review
Pervious road with course aggregate has 30–50% longer service
life than normal pavement [14]. A single-sized aggregate gradation
is commonly used to produce pervious concrete [26,23], which can
easily achieve the required void content more than 15%. Too much
sand and improper compaction energy may lead to an excessively
low void content and reduced drainability features. Compaction
and sand addition should be therefore analyzed more in details [7].
inadequate strength [24]. A higher amount of small aggregate frac-
tions (4–8 mm) yielded higher density concrete mixtures and
greater flexural strength. However, connected porosity as a main
parameter for estimating pervious concrete efficiency was surpris-
ingly influenced more by the aggregate type than the size [10].
Increasing the cement paste area is another means of increasing
the overall mixture strength [26]. This increase in cement paste
area can easily be achieved through the use of smaller aggregates.
With smaller aggregate, the cement paste will have more specific
surface area to coat. Additionally, it has been examined that
enhancing the cement paste itself can result in increased mixture
strength [26]. In another research, water-to-cement ratios between
0.30 and 0.38 were tested, resulting in an optimal water to cement
ratio of 0.32–0.34 [17]. The properties of the cement paste in per-
vious concrete vary largely from that of conventional concrete.
Cement paste used in pervious concrete mixtures should have a
high viscosity [8]. Further studies need to be conducted on the
properties of cement paste used in producing pervious concrete.
Another main concern with pervious mixture design is drain-
down susceptibility. Researchers examined three different design
void ratios of 15%, 20%, and 25% [8].
Through this information, it can be easily understood that there
are many influential factors that affect the overall mixture perfor-
mance, leading to both advantages and disadvantages of pervious
concrete. When designing a pervious concrete mixture, factors
such as aggregate gradation, paste contents, void percentage, and
mixing methods must be considered.
3. Objective and scope
The objective of this study is to optimize the mixture design of
pervious concrete pavement using the Taguchi method through
evaluation of its physical and mechanical properties. Compressive,
splitting-tensile, and flexural strength are tested to assess the
mechanical properties of pervious concrete pavement. Three main
control factors are utilized in the Taguchi methods including aggre-
gate size, water-to-cement ratio, and percentage of cement paste.
4. Research methodology
After a detailed literature review, the next step is to define an
objective for a performance measure of the process. In this study
mechanical characteristics of pervious concrete are considered.
The objective is maximizing strength and permeability rate. Then,
the design parameters affecting the performance measure is
assigned. Parameters are variables within the process that
affect the measure. Three parameters were selected herein i.e.,
coarse aggregate size, water-to-cement ratio and percentage of
cement paste (mass-based) that all can be easily controlled. After
that, the number of levels at which the parameters should be var-
ied is determine. Aggregate size range between 6.5–19.0 mm,

Table 1
Physical and chemical properties of the portland cement.

Physical properties
Fineness (cm2/gr) Retained on Autoclave Normal Setting time Compressive Flow table
sieve # 70 (%) expansion (%) consistency (%) strength
(MPa)
Initial Final 3-day 7-day
(minutes) (minutes)
2848 11.41 0.51 25.2 165 225 15.9 21.6 145
Chemical properties
Components Silicon Dioxide (SiO2) Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3) Ferric Oxide (Fe2O3) Calcium Oxide (CaO)
Results obtained (%) 22.52 5.24 3.86 59.8
 A. Joshaghani et al. / Construction and Building Materials 101 (2015) 317–325 319

Table 2
Summary of aggregate properties.

Test description (4.75–9.5) mm (9.5–12.5) mm (12.5–19) mm ASTM Code No.

Absorption (%) 1.707 1.657 1.505 C 127
Specific gravity, bulk 2.55 2.61 2.68 C 127
Specific gravity, saturated surface dry 2.57 2.62 2.69 C 127
Specific gravity, apparent 2.59 2.64 2.71 C 127
Bulk density (kg/m3) 1689 1606 1581 C 29

50 By determining number of parameters and levels, the proper

orthogonal array can be selected. Then, the experiments indicated
Void Content, percent by volume

in the completed array to collect data on the effect of the perfor-

40
mance measure are carried out. Finally, the effect of each parame-
ter using signal-to-noise ratio is evaluated. The research
30 methodology flowchart is shown in Fig. 1.
The Taguchi method has been generally adopted to optimize the
20 design parameters [9] because this systematic approach can signif-
icantly minimize the overall experimental costs.
10 In this research, three variables with three levels are applied
which results in 27 combinations. This method uses a special
design of orthogonal arrays to determine the optimum experimen-
0
tal conditions [19]. Thus, by using this method only nine combina-
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
tions are utilized for further analysis. Signal-to-Noise ratios (S/N),
Paste content, percent by volume serve as objective functions for optimization, help in data analysis.
Well-Compacted Lightly-Compacted In Taguchi designs, a criterion is used to determine control fac-
tors which decreases variability in a process by minimizing the
Fig. 2. Relationship between paste and void content [1].
effects of uncontrollable factors. While control factors are those
design parameters that can be controlled, noise factors cannot be
water-to-cement ratio varies between 0.25 and 0.35, and finally controlled during production. Noise factors can be controlled dur-
percentage of cement paste changes from 14% to 21% based on ing experimentation. In the design of experiment by Taguchi
mass. In this research three levels are used. Increasing the number method, noise factors are manipulated to provide variability
of levels leads to a large number of experiments. Next step is through setting of optimal control factors. The higher values of
creating orthogonal arrays for the design parameters indicating the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) identify control factor settings that
the number of parameters and conditions for each experiment. minimize the effects of the noise factors.

Table 3
Mixture design.

Specimen Aggregate size (mm) Water-cement ratio P/G⁄ (Vol.) Unit Weight (kg/m3) Target void ratio (%)
Cement Water Aggregate
C1-1.25.14 4.75–9.5 0.25 0.22 247.78 61.94 1672.28 30
C2-1.30.21 4.75–9.5 0.30 0.34 341.46 102.42 1672.28 22
C3-1.35.28 4.75–9.5 0.35 0.45 421.05 147.35 1672.28 15
C4-2.25.21 9.5–12.5 0.25 0.35 371.68 92.92 1590.30 22
C5-2.30.28 9.5–12.5 0.30 0.47 455.28 136.50 1590.30 15
C6-2.35.14 9.5–12.5 0.35 0.23 210.52 73.67 1590.30 30
C7-3.25.28 12.5–19 0.25 0.48 495.57 123.89 1565.08 15
C8-3.30.14 12.5–19 0.30 0.24 227.64 68.29 1565.08 30
C9-3.35.21 12.5–19 0.35 0.36 341.46 119.51 1565.08 22

P/G: paste/aggregate.

Table 4
Pervious concrete strength results at 7-, 28- and 56-day.

Mixture design Parameters Compressive strength Splitting-tensile strength Flexural strength (MPa)
(MPa) (MPa)
Aggregate (mm) Water-cement ratio (%) Paste ratio (%) 7-day 28-day 56-day 7-day 28-day 56-day 7-day 28-day 56-day
C1-1.25.14 4.75–9.5 25 14 5.4 6.6 7.2 1.2 1.6 1.7 1.3 1.8 2.2
C2-1.30.21 4.75–9.5 30 21 6.1 7.2 8.0 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.5 2.1 2.6
C3-1.35.28 4.75–9.5 35 28 7.8 9.4 10.4 1.8 2.2 2.4 3.1 3.7 4.7
C4-2.25.21 9.5–12.5 25 21 5.1 6.3 7.4 1.0 1.2 1.3 1.5 1.8 1.9
C5-2.30.28 9.5–12.5 30 28 7.0 8.2 9.6 1.3 1.5 1.7 1.7 2.0 2.8
C6-2.35.14 9.5–12.5 35 14 5.3 6.2 7.0 1.0 1.2 1.3 1.5 1.7 2.0
C7-3.25.28 12.5–19.0 25 28 5.2 7.2 6.8 0.9 1.1 1.2 1.4 1.7 1.9
C8-3.30.14 12.5–19.0 30 14 4.9 5.5 6.2 0.9 1.1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
C9-3.35.21 12.5–19.0 35 21 6.6 7.2 8.0 1.1 1.3 1.5 1.6 1.9 2.1
320 A. Joshaghani et al. / Construction and Building Materials 101 (2015) 317–325

12 The signal-to-noise ratio measures how the response varies rel-

10.4 ative to the nominal or target value under different noise condi-
10 9.6 tions. The goal of the experiment is to maximize the response
Compressive Strength, (MPa)

i.e., strength with regards to different signal-to-noise ratios. For

8.0 8.0
8 7.4
7.8 static designs, Minitab offers Eq. (1) for the signal-to-noise ratio
7.2 7.0 [18].
6.2
P 1!
6 S Y2
¼ 10  log ð1Þ
N n
4
where ‘‘S/N” is the signal to noise ratio which depends on the exper-
2 imental objective. ‘‘n” is the number of observations on the partic-
ular product, and ‘‘Y” is the respective value.
0
4.1. Materials

The cement used in this project was type I portland cement,

Mix Design which meets the requirements of ASTM C150 [2]. The physical
A. Compressive strength and chemical properties of the cement are shown in Table 1.
Pervious concrete mixtures require a rigorous analysis of aggre-
3.0 gate properties for a structure which have adequate strength and
allowing water to drain through its matrix. The particle size
2.4 distribution of the crushed stone was unified. The angularity was
Splitting-tensile Strength, (MPa)

2.5
visually both angular, round, and a combination which classified
2.1
as semi angular. Fine aggregate was deliberately omitted in the
2.0
1.7 1.7 mixture designs. Pervious concrete investigated in this study
1.5 1.5 incorporated three size of aggregate including 4.75–9.5 mm or
1.5 1.3 1.3
1.2 9.5–12.5 mm or 12.5–19 mm. The details of specifications of the
aggregates are listed in Table 2. The aggregates were batched in
1.0
the saturated surface dry condition and no chemical admixture
was used in the concrete mixtures.
0.5

4.2. Mixture design

0.0

The mixture design for each pervious concrete batch had a tar-
get void content of 15–30% as recommended by ACI Committee
522-R [1]. Fig. 2 indicates that the actual measured void ratios
Mix Design
were 15–30%, and paste content 14–28%, respectively. This design
B. Splitting-tensile strength resulted in mixture proportions of 210–421 kg/m3 of binder mate-
rial, 1565–1672 kg/m3 of coarse aggregate and the water to cement
6 ratio ranged from 0.25 to 0.35 for a 1 m3 batch of concrete. The
details of mixture design are shown in Table 3.

5 4.7
4.3. Sampling preparation
Flexural strength, (MPa)

4 The original mixture contained crushed gravel, Type I cement

and water. All mix designs were adjusted according to ACI
2.8 Committee 522-R [1], which has shown a good balance between
3
2.6 permeability and strength/durability.
2.2 2.1 2.1 The pervious concrete mixtures were batched in a pan mixer
1.9 2.0
2 1.8 type. This mixer is most common where stiff or zero slump mix-
tures are prevalent such as pervious concrete. The mixing and cur-
ing were performed in accordance with ASTM C192 [3]. Firstly, 5%
1
of the cement was added to the aggregate (for 1 min), which
allowed the mix to initiate the coating of the aggregate with the
0 cement and improved bonding [22]. Then, the required quantity
of water and cement was gradually added. Each pervious concrete
batch size was approximately 0.064 m3.
A total number of specimens made for this study was 216. 162
Mix Design specimens were cylinders 100 mm diameter by 200 mm height,
and 54 were prisms of 100 mm  100 mm  500 mm. Concrete
C. Flexural strength
mixtures were mildly compacted as much as possible in order to
Fig. 3. Compressive, splitting-tensile and flexural strength of different mixture increase the void ratio. However, it caused to decrease the com-
designs. pressive strength. All specimens were placed by lightly rodding
 A. Joshaghani et al. / Construction and Building Materials 101 (2015) 317–325 321

11.0 y = 14.056x-0.221

Compressive Strength, (MPa)

10.5 R² = 0.9997
10.0
9.5 Compressive
Strength for each
9.0
aggregate size
8.5 9.5, 8.6 Average
8.0 12.5, 8.0
7.5 19.0,Power
7.3 (Average)
7.0
6.5
6.0
9 11 13 15 17 19
Aggregate Size, (mm)

Fig. 4. Influence of aggregate size on the compressive strength of the pervious concrete at the age of 56-day.

9
8.6
8 8.0
y = 14.056x-0.221
7.3
7 R² = 0.9997
6
Strength, (Mpa)

5 Compressive
Tensile
4
Flexual
3 3.1
y = 12.078x-0.626
2 2.1 2.2 2.0 R² = 0.8575
1.4 1.4
1 y = 6.3164x-0.534
R² = 0.6969
0
9 11 13 15 17 19
Aggregate Size, (mm)

Fig. 5. Correlation between the compressive, splitting-tensile and flexural strengths at the age of 56-days.

4.0
Splitting-tensile and Flexural

3.5 Flexural strength = 0.164(Compressive strength)1.2807

3.0 R² = 0.7109
Strength, (MPa)

2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5 Splitting-tensile strength = 0.1338(Compressive strength)1.2161
R² = 0.7067
0.0
5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5 10.0
Comressive Strength, (MPa)
Power (Splitting-tensile strength) Power (Flexural Strength)

Fig. 6. Correlation between compressive strength with splitting-tensile and flexural strength.

Table 5
Density and types of void ratio of the pervious concrete mixtures.

Mixture design Density Target void ratio (%) Open void ratio (%) Close void ratio (%) Total void ratio (%) Permeability (mm/s)
C1-1.25.14 1794 30 25.2 6.1 31.4 13.6
C2-1.30.21 1863 22 30.1 7.0 37.2 9.5
C3-1.35.28 1901 15 13.5 5.3 18.7 8.8
C4-2.25.21 1824 22 23.0 7.2 30.2 14.1
C5-2.30.28 1869 15 16.4 6.2 22.6 12.4
C6-2.35.14 1723 30 33.1 7.2 40.4 16.3
C7-3.25.28 1835 15 14.7 5.0 19.7 12.8
C8-3.30.14 1719 30 29.4 8.2 37.6 16.2
C9-3.35.21 1769 22 22.4 7.3 29.8 15.7
322 A. Joshaghani et al. / Construction and Building Materials 101 (2015) 317–325

with steel tamping rod 600 mm long rounded at one end to provide 18
16.3 16.2
low compaction on the top of the cylinder to ensure uniform com-
16
paction in each lift. The molds were filled in three equal layers and 13.6 14.1 13.9
each layer uniformly rodded 20 times in accordance with the 14

Permeability, (mm/s)
12.1 11.9 12.2
procedures outlined in ASTM C192 [2]. The freshly consolidated 12
concrete specimens were covered with plastic at temperature of 9.6
10
approximately 24 °C.
8

4.4. Testing procedure 6

Cylindrical specimens were placed under hydraulic testing
machine, and the loading speed was fixed at a rate of 0.021 mm/
s until the specimens failed. The standard compressive, splitting-
tensile, and flexural strength tests were performed on the cylinders
and prisms in accordance with the procedures given in ASTM C39
[4], ASTM C496 [5], and ASTM C78 [6], respectively. Replicates
were performed for each test and the average of strength values
was reported. All tests were carried out in three ages: 7-, 28-,
56-day. 24 specimens were made for each mixture design. From
the 24 specimens, 6 were beams used for flexural strength testing
(2 replicates for each age) and others were cylinders applied for
compressive and splitting-tensile strength (3 replicates for each
age and test).
It is a common practice to use a falling-head apparatus to
measure permeability [26,16]. Specimens were prepared for the
permeability test by sawing off 10.0 mm from each side. Around
of the samples were confined and sealed with bitumen insulation
to prevent water from throwing out sidelong. The samples were
wrapped with a rubber sleeve to prevent leakage along its edges
and ensure that the water only vertically infiltrated through the
samples. The sealed samples were placed at the bottom of the
standpipe sealed with glass glue in joints. The standpipe had an
inside diameter of 45.4 mm. The permeability tests were initiated
by allowing to saturate the pervious concrete sample to release
the entrapped air in the specimens. At an initial head of above
the sample, the time was started till the water level reached a final
head. This process was repeated three times for each specimen
under falling head for water permeability and the average values
were reported. The coefficient of water permeability k of the spec-
imens was calculated using Eq. (2) [11].
a:L
K¼ :Lnðh0 =h1 Þ
A:t
where k is the permeability coefficient, a is the cross-sectional area
of the standpipe (1618.01 mm2), L is the vertical distance of the
measuring points of the specimen (200 mm), A is the cross area of
the pervious concrete specimen (7850 mm2), t is the time taken
for the head to fall from h0 to h1, h0 is the initial water head and
h1 is the final water head.
The pervious concrete porosity was calculated by taking the dif-
4
2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Mix Design Types
Fig. 7. Permeability of pervious concrete mixture designs.
air, and W3 is the weight of the oven dried specimen, V1 is the vol-
ume of the specimen, and qw is the density of water [21].
5. Results and discussion
Test results of the above-mentioned testing including the void
ratio, density, compressive, splitting-tensile and flexural strengths
are presented in the following subsections.
5.1. Strength analysis
The pervious concrete strength tests studied in this research
were compression, splitting-tensile and flexural strength tests. By
examining strength of specimens, it was observed that the most
of the failures occurred because of the aggregate fracture. The
concrete strength testing results are shown in Table 4, sorted by
aggregate size. This table shows compressive, splitting-tensile,
and flexural strengths of pervious concrete in different ages
(7-, 28- and 56-day). Table 4 illuminates that there is a gradual
increase over time in a same test. It expresses that there are no sys-
tematic errors or outliers in the testing procedure.
Fig. 3(A –C) show the results of the compressive, splitting-
tensile, and flexural strengths of pervious concrete specimens,
ð2Þ respectively. It is evident that the size of the aggregate has a critical
effect on all strength properties. Mixture C3-1.35.28 i.e., aggregate
size of 4.75–9.5 mm achieves the maximum compressive strength
of 10.4 MPa corresponding to the lowest porosity. However,
mixture C8-3.30.14 that is aggregate size of 12.5–19 mm shows
the lowest compressive strength of 6.2 MPa due to the highest
12 18
Compressive Strength, (Mpa)

ference in weight of oven dry and saturated, submerged under 17

water. Two types of void ratio are measured based on pervious 10
Permeability, (mm/s)

16
concrete void ratio experiment method [12]: opened void ratio 8 15
and closed void ratio. Cylindrical specimens of 100 mm in diameter 14
and 200 mm in length are used. The opened and closed void ratio 6 13
was calculated using Eqs. (3) and (4), respectively [21]. 12
  4 11
W2  W1
Aopen ¼ 1  100 ð3Þ 10
V 1 qw 2
9
  0 8
W3  W1 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Aclose ¼ 1  100  Aopen ð4Þ
V 1 qw Porosity, (%)
Compressive Strength Permeability
where Aopen and Aclose are the opened and closed void ratio of con-
crete (%), respectively, W1 is the weight of the specimen under Fig. 8. Relationships among porosity, strength and permeability for pervious
water, W2 weight of the specimen following 24 h exposure to the concrete.
A. Joshaghani et al. / Construction and Building Materials 101 (2015) 317–325 323

Fig. 9. Effects of parameters on mean S/N ratio.

324 A. Joshaghani et al. / Construction and Building Materials 101 (2015) 317–325
porosity. Strength variability within each aggregate size grouping
(replicates) were negligible. Fig. 3 asserts that although values of
individual testing are different, trends are almost the similar. That
is, the mix designs 3 and 5 had the highest strength values in all
three testing and approximately the same for the minimum values
(e.g., mixture design C8-3.30.14).
Fig. 4 shows strong relationship between compressive strength
and aggregate size that is as the aggregate size increases, the
strength of the pervious concrete decreases. The bigger size of
aggregates results in decreasing the bulk density of aggregate.
Therefore the contact forces among the aggregates becomes
weaker which leads to reduction of strength of the pervious
concrete.
Fig. 5 depicts the strong correlation between compressive,
splitting-tensile, and flexural strength and aggregate size. Similar
to the trend shown in Fig. 4, the higher the aggregate size, the less
strength was achieved. The similar trends of compressive,
splitting-tensile, and flexural strength expresses the relationship
between these values which will be discussed later.
Fig. 6 shows the average strength of replicates at the age of
28-day. It expresses a strong relationships between compressive
strength and splitting-tensile strength and flexural strength. As
expected by increasing compressive strength, the flexural and
splitting-tensile strength are increased.
5.2. Porosity and permeability
While the uniform gradation has a smaller range of aggregate
sizes, it results in a higher void content and reduction in the paste
content. The density and void ratios of the pervious concrete mix-
tures are shown in Table 5. Results show open void content for per-
vious concrete ranges between 13.5% and 33.1% for the pervious
concrete mixtures. With an increase in the porosity, the strength
of pervious concrete is reduced. The results confirm that the com-
pressive strength of pervious concrete reduces with an increase in
the void ratio.
The permeability of the pervious concrete mixtures is shown in
Table 5 and illustrated in Fig. 7. Table 5 shows that large mixture
designs with larger aggregates have a higher void ratio owing to
higher surface area of the aggregates. Fig. 7 depicts the permeabil-
ity trend is as opposed to concrete strength i.e., mixture designs
with a higher permeability rate has the lower strength. This figure
illuminates that the pervious concrete mixtures with the highest
permeability rates (mixture designs 6 and 8) are those with bigger
size of aggregate and void ratios.
The lowest permeability of 9.6 mm/s was recorded with aggre-
gate size of 4.75–9.5 mm which had the lowest porosity of 18.6%.
Fig. 8 shows the relationships among porosity, strength (56-day)
and permeability for pervious concrete. For a given porosity,
Fig. 8 could be used to estimate the strength and permeability of
pervious concrete. As an example, at the specified porosity of
30%, pervious concrete will have the permeability of 6.4 mm/s
and the compressive strength of pervious concrete will be
7.7 MPa. This figure can be used to estimate the void content
needed for mixtures to satisfy the specification requirement for
permeability and strength of pervious concrete. In other words,
having determined the void ratio, it would be possible to obtain
proper permeability and compressive strength.
5.3. Taguchi analysis
As mentioned before, aggregate size, water-to-cement ratio and
percentage of cement paste were considered as control factors for
optimizing (maximizing) compressive, splitting-tensile and flexure
strengths of concrete. The data were analyzed for mean objective/
response function. The Taguchi method examines the variation of
the response using chosen S/N ratio. Broadly speaking, the S/N ratio
is the ratio of the mean (signal) to the standard deviation (noise). In
this research ‘‘the larger the better” type of quality characteristic is
considered since the objective is to maximize the strengths of per-
vious concrete.
The mean values in terms of S/N ratio for all the three control
factors were depicted in Fig. 9 with main effects of the parameters
on the mean response. The analysis states the lowest aggregate
size (4.75–9.5 mm), the highest water to cement ratio (0.35), and
the highest paste content (28%) are positively affecting all kinds
of strengths in pervious concrete. In compressive strength, paste
content is more important than aggregate size and the water to
cement ratio. In other words, the mean of S/N ratio of paste content
is 18.87 which is higher than any other ratios. However, in
splitting-tensile strength and flexural strength aggregate size is
playing the most critical role. Therefore, Minitab suggests a mix-
ture design with aggregate size ranges between 4.75 mm and
9.5 mm, water to cement ratio of 0.35, and the paste content of
28% as the optimum design.
6. Conclusions
This study is conducted to investigate the application of Taguchi
method on optimizing mixture design of pervious concrete. Based
on the results from this experimental research on pervious con-
crete, the following conclusions have been drawn:

Strength of pervious concrete specimens depends primarily on
total void ratio. With an increase of the maximum size of aggre-
gates, the compressive, splitting-tensile, and flexural strength of
the single-sized aggregate gradations decrease while the void
ratio increases.

The compressive, splitting-tensile, and flexural strength are
inversely related to the permeability. As permeability increases,
the strength of pervious concrete mixtures decreases.

The void ratio of specimens is slightly higher for larger size
aggregates due to higher surface area of the aggregates.

The most influential control factors in compressive strength is
the paste content, in tensile and flexural strength is aggregate
size according to the results derived from Taguchi analysis.
Acknowledgments
The research reported in this paper was supported by Amirkabir
University of Technology with coordination of Concrete Technol-
ogy & Durability Research Center. The research team appreciates
the concrete laboratory of the Department of Civil and Environ-
mental Engineering. The authors also acknowledge the technical
assistance of Mr.Pirnia and Mr.Bakhshi.
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