Construction and Building Materials 49 (2013) 151–160

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Construction and Building Materials

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Valorization of seashell by-products in pervious concrete pavers

Dang Hanh Nguyen a,b, Mohamed Boutouil a, Nassim Sebaibi a,⇑, Lydia Leleyter b, Fabienne Baraud b
a
Ecole Supérieure d’Ingénieurs des Travaux de la Construction de Caen (ESITC-Caen), 1, rue Pierre et Marie Curie, 14610 Epron, France
b
Normandie Univ., France, UCBN UR ABTE EA 4651, QALEA, F-14032 Caen, France

h i g h l i g h t s

 Seashell By-Products (SBP) size highly influences the granular arrangement of matrix.
 The SBP can effectively replace gravel 2/6 mm for pervious concrete pavers.
 SBP 2/4 mm provides a good compromise for the overall composition of the matrix.
 SBP 4/6.3 mm decrease in mechanical strength and promoting the water infiltration.
 The compaction pressure into a single layer of 7.4 kPa is optimal with good strength.

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

Article history: Seashell By-Products (SBP) are produced in an important quantity in France and are considered as waste.
Received 29 May 2013 This paper studies their use as a partial replacement of aggregates in pervious concrete pavers considered
Received in revised form 8 August 2013 as an environmentally friendly building material. After designing the control pervious concrete pavers by
Accepted 12 August 2013
investigating the energy and the pressure compaction, the coarse aggregate fraction were partially (20%
Available online 6 September 2013
or 40% by mass) replaced by SBP obtained from the Crepidula shell. The crushed Crepidula seashell of 2/
4 mm and 4/6.3 mm were used to make new seashell by-products based pavers. In this paper, the
Keywords:
mechanical and hydrologic properties of both pervious concrete pavers were determined. Results show
Valorization
Seashell by-products
that the seashell by-products have the potential to be used as aggregate. The mix design allows achieving
Pervious concrete pavers both a compressive strength of 16 and 15 MPa for respectively the control pervious concrete pavers and
Permeability the seashell by-products based pavers and a permeability coefficient in the range of 3–8 mm s1.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction (uncrushed) should be avoided as their presence may result in

According to the French Union of Aggregate Producers [1], in
France, almost 400 million tons of aggregates are consumed each
year, i.e. 6 tons per inhabitant. However, most of the aggregates
used are natural aggregates which are usually excavated from river
beds, quarries, dredged from sand or shingle banks under the sea.
In order to reduce the environmental impact of building materials
and specially natural resource consumption, the reuse of waste and
by-products is one of the solutions. For aggregates, many studies
[2–6] have been carried out to investigate the replacement of nat-
ural aggregates in concrete by recycled aggregates, slag aggregates,
and recently seashells.
Regarding the seashells, it was reported [4–6] that they are a
hard material that can produce good quality concrete, however, a
higher cement content may be required. Moreover, due to the
angularity of the shells, additional cement paste is required to ob-
tain the desired workability. Aggregate containing complete shells
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 2 31 46 23 00; fax: +33 2 31 43 89 74.
E-mail address: ec.ecomateriaux@esitc-caen.fr (N. Sebaibi).
voids in the concrete and lower the compressive strength.
In Europe, France has an important fishing and shellfish farming
industry that produces nearly 200,000 tons of shells from shellfish
breeding and nearly 50,000 tons of shellfish per year from fishing
[7]. These activities generate thousands of tons of seashell by-
products (empty shells) to be discharged, as they are considered
as waste. For the moment, some attempts has been made in France
to recycle them as soil conditioner [8] or animals food [9] but none
of these attempts gave satisfaction in terms of viable and added va-
lue recycling.
In this study, Seashell By-Products (SBP) from the French west
coast were prepared and used to partially replace natural aggre-
gates to make a specific concrete: pervious concrete pavers. Pervi-
ous concrete is an environmentally friendly material and an
effective means to meet growing environmental demands. Pervi-
ous concrete is used to prevent from flooding during heavy rain
and to increase the water infiltration into the soil [10,11].
Pervious concrete uses the same materials as conventional con-
crete, with the exceptions that the fine aggregate is nearly or en-
tirely eliminated, and the size distribution of the coarse

0950-0618/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2013.08.017
152 D.H. Nguyen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 49 (2013) 151–160

Table 1
aggregate is kept narrow, allowing for relatively little particle
Physical and chemical properties of cement CEM I 52.5 R.
packing. A system of interconnected voids (15–35%) is created
Chemical analysis (%) Physical properties resulting in a highly permeable concrete that drains very quickly
CaO 63.4 Specify gravity (kg m3) 3140 [10–12]. The compressive strength of the material ranges from 2
SiO2 19.2 Specific surface Blaine (cm2 g1) 4900 to 28 MPa [10,11]. The draining rate of pervious concrete will vary
Al2O3 4.5 Compressive strength (MPa) with aggregate size and density of the mixture, but will generally
Fe2O3 3.9 2 days 39
MgO 1.1 7 days 53
fall within the range of 1.35–12.2 mm/s [11]. For parking lots, a de-
SO3 3.5 28 days 64 sign compressive strength of about 13.8 MPa (2000 psi) is desired,
K2O 0.90 Initial setting time (min) 170 and even lower strengths may be acceptable when the concrete re-
N2O 0.07 ceive light vehicular loads [13].
Loss on ignition 2.6
Phase composition C3S C2S C3A C4AF
68% 9% 6% 13% 2. Experimental program

2.1. Materials

2.1.1. Cement and aggregate

100 The cement used in this study is an Ordinary Porland Cement (OPC) CEM I 52.5
90 R. The chemical and physical properties of this cement are summarized in Table 1.
80 This cement contains small quantities of C3A (see Table 1) that reduces its water de-
Percent passing (%)

mand [14] and increases the compressive strength at 7 days approximately 80–90%
70 value at 28 days.
60 The alluvial quartz sand with a grain size 0/4 mm was used. This sand presents
50 a specific gravity of 2620 kg m3, an absorption coefficient of 0.50% and a fineness
modulus of 2.81.
40 To ensure the infiltration capacity of pervious concrete, the selection of aggre-
30 gate monogranular (single-sized aggregates) is critical to achieve the interconnec-
20 tion of the porous system [10,11]. The size distribution of gravel and sand is
given in Fig. 1.
10 The monogranular angular aggregate fraction 4/6.3 mm was employed with a
0 specified gravity of 2740 kg m3 and water absorption of 0.48%.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Grain size (mm)
Gravel 4/6.3 Sand 0/4 2.1.2. Seashell by-products
Crepidula 4/6.3 Crepidula 2/4 To evaluate the possible use of Seashell By-Products (SBP) as aggregate in per-
vious concrete pavers, crepidula seashell was chosen. This seashell is very abundant
[15] on the on the Normandy and Brittany coasts.
Fig. 1. Grain size distribution of natural aggregate and crushed crepidula shell.
Crepidula (Fig. 2a) were subjected to different preparations such as washing,
grinding and screening (Fig. 2b and c) to obtain different fraction and grain size dis-
tributions. In this research, we crushed the crepidula by one crusher laboratory.
Effectively, crushing shells provides granular particle >63 lm and fine fraction

Fig. 2. Crepidula; (a) Crude crepidula; (b) Crepidula 4/6.3 mm; and (c) Crepidula 2/4 mm.

Table 2
Physical and chemical properties of the crushed crepidula and aggregates.

Characteristics Crushed crepidula Aggregates

D 2/4 mm D 4/6.3 mm Coarse aggregate 4/6.3 mm Sand 0/4
3
Specific gravity (kg m ) 2716 2729 2740 2620
Water absorption (%) 2.25 2.02 0.48 0,5
Chloride ion content (%) 0.065 0.065 0 0
Organic matter content (%) 1.86 1.86 0 0
 D.H. Nguyen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 49 (2013) 151–160 153

Table 3
Composition of different mixes proposed.

ID Cement Watera Gravel 4/6.3 mm Sand (kg/ Crepidula 4/6.3 mm Crepidula 2/4 mm Specify density Ratebshell Theoretical initial
(kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) (kg/m3) porosity (%)
CPCP 309.0 92.7 1452.3 72.6 – – 1926.3 0 34.4
SPCP1 309.0 92.7 1161.8 72.6 290.5 – 1926.3 20 34.4
SPCP2 309.0 92.7 871.4 72.6 580.9 – 1926.3 40 34.4
SPCP3 309.0 92.7 1161.8 72.6 – 290.5 1926.3 20 34.3
SPCP4 309.0 92.7 871.4 72.6 – 580.9 1926.3 40 34.3
SPCP5 309.0 92.7 871.4 72.6 290.5 290.5 1926.3 40 34.3

CPCP: Control Pervious Concrete Pavers.

SPCP: Seashell by-product based Pervious Concrete Pavers.
a
Efficient water.
b
Weight percentage of shell on the weight of the aggregate in the control pervious concrete pavers.

<63 lm. In this research, a sieving was performed to separate the fine and granular
particle. The aim of the washing phase is to remove the impurities and to limit the
organic matter and chloride ions content.
The particle size distribution of crepidula is given also in Fig. 1 while Table 2
summarizes the physical and chemical properties of Crepidula SBP. The specific
gravity of SBP is similar to that of the natural aggregate. SBP are mainly made from
calcium carbonate Moreover, due to its porous structure [4], the SBP absorbs more
water than natural aggregate.
 Case no. 1: Filling in one layer, then vibration without pressure P = 0 kPa for
15 s;
 Case no. 2: Filling in one layer, then vibration with pressure P = 2.5 kPa for 15 s;
 Case no. 3: Filling in one layer, then vibration with pressure P = 10 kPa for 15 s;
 Case no. 4: Filling in one layer, then vibration with pressure P = 15 kPa for 15 s;
 Case no. 5: Filling in one layer, then vibration with pressure P = 10 kPa for 30 s;
 Case no. 6: Filling in three consecutive layers, then vibration for 5 s after each
layer without pressure (P = 0 kPa).

The Cases 2–5 implementation methods simulates the industrial procedure

2.2. Mix composition and specimen preparation
The pervious concrete strength, porosity and permeability depend, for a given
mix proportion, on the placement method. Static and vibrating methods are used
to compact pervious concrete. In one hand, if the concrete is under-compacted
the aggregates will not bond well and if, on the other hand, the concrete is over-
compacted, the surface will be sealed and the pavement will not be permeable [16].
In this study, the target performances are a compressive strength of 15 MPa at
28 days and a total porosity of 25% and the mix design was carried out into two
steps. Step I was dedicated to design the Control Pervious Concrete Pavers (CPCP)
and to investigate the effect of the placement method on the strength. Step II
was to investigate the effects of the incorporation of the Crepidula SBP aggregates
on the properties of the Seashell by-product based Pervious Concrete Pavers (SPCP).
The CPCP and SPCP concrete mix proportions are summarized in Table 3. For
these mixtures, cement water and sand contents and w/c ratio are kept constant
while the gravel content varies with the incorporation of the Crepidula aggregate
fractions 2/4 mm and 4/6.3 mm. The theoretical initial porosities (volume of air
and water) of all the mixes (with and without the shell) are almost identical be-
cause the specific gravity of the seashell is similar to the aggregates’ one. An amount
of water corresponding to the absorption of SBP was added. The water added varied
between 5% and 10% of the water efficient according to the shells content. This was
done to ensure that the SBP will not absorb a large amount of water during casting
and interfering with the w/c ratio.
All the mixtures were used to make cubic pervious concrete pavers specimens
(150  150  150 mm).
As mentioned above, Step I included investigations on the placement method to
obtain the specimens by studying different compaction methods. The compaction
system is shown on Fig. 3. The cases of compaction are as following:
used in the precast concrete industry.
According to the variation of the 7 days compressive strength (see Section 3.2)
with the different placement cases, Case no. 6 was chosen to make the laboratory
pavers. Immediately after casting, all specimens were stored during 24 h in a con-
trolled room maintained at 20 °C ± 2 °C and 95% ± 5% relative humidity. After 24 h,
the specimens were removed from the molds and kept at the same conditions for 7
and 28 days curing periods.
2.3. Test methods
2.3.1. Compressive test
The compressive strength is measured on cubic 15  15  15 cm specimens in
accordance with the European Standard EN 12390 [17]. The compressive strength
was performed at 7 and 28 days using a constant rate loading of 0.06 MPa s1.
The reported result is an average of three to five tests.
2.3.2. Splitting test
According to the European Standard EN 1338 [18], the splitting test was per-
formed on cubic specimens 15  15  15 cm. This test was performed at constant
load rate of 0.05 MPa s1 (Fig. 4).
2.3.3. Porosity and density
The air void content of pervious concrete has been measured, using ‘the exper-
imental procedure’ recommended by French Association of Civil Engineering [19].
The value obtained by this method is water-accessible porosity. Then, the bulk den-
sity of concrete can be calculated.
The image analysis was employed to assess the pores diameter distribution and
to determine the pore size distribution of control pervious concrete [20–22].

F
Concrete
specimen

Rigid Packing
bearers pieces

F
Fig. 3. Compaction system. Fig. 4. Scheme of splitting tension test.
154 D.H. Nguyen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 49 (2013) 151–160

Graduated transparent Table 5

Inlet valve pipe with an inside Seven day compressive strength of control pervious concrete pavers prepared with
different compaction methods.
diameter of 99.4 mm
Case No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 No. 4 No. 5 No. 6

100
Valve to
keep the Layer 1 1 1 1 1 3
Pressure (kPa) 0 2.5 10 15 10 0

100
constant
Vibration time/layer (s) 15 15 15 15 30 5
water level
100 Compressive strength at 13.39 14.98 15.37 13.38 15.14 16.19
Pervious 7 days (MPa)
concrete

40
Standard deviation 0.66 0.94 0.74 0.66 0.59 0.33
Drain pipe
specimen
enclosed in
mold Outlet

Compressive strength at 7 days (MPa)

valve 16.0

15.5 Case n° 3
Fig. 5. Device for measuring the permeability coefficient of the pervious concrete Case n° 2
pavers. 15.0

14.5

y = -0.0419x2+0.675x+13.509
14.0
2
R = 0.98
13.5
Case n° 1 Case n° 4
7.4 kPa
13.0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Applied pressure (kPa)

Fig. 7. Effect of applied pressure on the compressive strength at 7 days of CPCP.

Coarse
aggregate

Voids

Paste
thickness
Fig. 6. Consistency of fresh concrete.
Fig. 8. Paste thickness.

2.3.4. Water permeability test

The water permeability of a material is the ability of water to pass through it
under the effect of a pressure gradient. It is expressed by Darcy’s relationship which where K (mm s1) is the permeability coefficient at 20 °C, L (mm) the sample length,
is valid in laminar flow regime [23]. Water permeability test aims to determine the Q (mm3) the volume of water collected, h (mm) the head of water, t2  t1 (s) the
coefficient permeability K by constant and falling head method. Constant head per- duration of water collection, and A (mm2) is the cross-sectional area of specimen.
meability is measured with various water levels (100 mm, 200 mm and 300 mm). Falling head permeability is measured with an initial water level h1 = 140 mm,
This test is the most applicable for materials with relatively high permeability, nor- 240 mm, 340 mm and final height h2 = 50 mm. The falling head permeability test is
mally K greater than 102 mm s1 and the permeability is calculated using the flow- suitable for the materials with a permeability coefficient less than 1 mm s1.
ing formula: In that case, the permeability coefficient is calculated as follows:
 
L Q Atube  L h1
K¼  ð1Þ K¼  ln ð2Þ
h Aðt2  t1 Þ At h2

Table 4
Fresh concrete.

Mix Bach type Compaction method Slump (mm) Bulk density (kg m3) Initial porosity of fresh concrete (%)
CPCP Control concrete Case no. 1 – 1 layer/P = 0 kPa/15 s 0 1886.37 35.75
Case no. 2 – 1 layer/P = 2.5 kPa/15 s 0 1894.81 35.47
Case no. 3 – 1 layer/P = 10 kPa/15 s 0 1902.81 35.19
Case no. 4 – 1 layer/P = 15 kPa/15 s 0 1902.22 35.21
Case no. 5 – 1 layer/P = 10 kPa/30 s 0 1876.15 36.10
Case no. 6 – 3 layer/P = 0 kPa/5 s per layer 0 1916.83 34.72
SPCP1 20%SBP 4/6.3 3 layers/P = 0 kPa/5 s per layer (as case n° 6) 0 1867.70 36.40
SPCP2 40%SBP 4/6.3 3 layers/P = 0 kPa/5 s per layer (as Case no. 6) 0 1810.77 38.34
SPCP3 20%SBP 2/4 3 layers/P = 0 kPa/5 s per layer (as Case no. 6) 0 1888.74 35.62
SPCP4 40%SBP 2/4 3 layers/P = 0 kPa/5 s per layer (as Case no. 6) 0 1897.96 35.36
SPCP5 40%SBP 2/6.3 3 layers/P = 0 kPa/5 s per layer (as Case no. 6) 0 1907.26 35.00
 D.H. Nguyen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 49 (2013) 151–160 155

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 9. Interaction between particle gravel under different energy compaction (a)
low, (b) reasonable, and (c) excessive.
Compressive strength at 28 days (MPa)

18
Fig. 12. SEM image of a crushed crepidula shell [24].
17
16
15
14 according to the compaction method and the SBP content. Average
13 bulk density values ranged from 1810 to 1917 kg m3. This range
12 of values is comparable to the values reported in papers research
11 on pervious concrete, which ranged from 1600 to 2000 kg3 [10].
10 The American Concrete Institute (ACI) specifies that the bulk den-
9
sity of concrete should be within 80 kg m3 of a specified density
[11]. Table 4 also shows that all the mixtures were within the
8
CPCP SPCP1 SPCP2 SPCP3 SPCP4 SPCP5 80 kg m3 of the specific density (Table 3). However, the mix con-
Mix taining 40%SBP 4/6.3 mm had unit weight that were significantly
lower than 80 kg m3 of the target value for the mix design, and
Fig. 10. Compressive strength of pavers 15  15  15 cm at 28 days. therefore did not meet ACI specification.
The initial porosity is also deduced from the bulk density of the
concrete in the fresh state. It is noted that the initial porosity varies
where K (mm s1) is the water permeability, A (mm2) the cross-sectional area of the
according to the method of compaction and the level of substitu-
specimen, Atube (mm2) the cross-sectional area of the standing pipe, L (mm) the
length of the specimen, t (s) the time required for the water level to fall from initial tion. This porosity is comparable to that of the pervious concrete
water head to the final water head, h1 (mm) the initial height of water, and h2 (mm) at 28 days curing (Section 3.4.2). This result seems to indicate that
is the final height of water. one of the best measures for quality control of pervious concrete
The permeability coefficient of pavers is unknown, thus constant and falling
mixtures is the test of weight [10].
permeability test are implemented. It is noteworthy that several authors
[11,21,24] prefer to use the falling head tests than constant head load test even with
permeable materials. Fig. 5 shows, the test device for the water permeability. Dur-
ing both tests, concrete samples were kept in saturated state.
3.2. Influence of compaction methods on compressive strength

3. Results and discussion Compaction is one of the main factors for pervious concrete
manufacture. High compaction can reduce the air voids of pervious
3.1. Fresh concrete concrete, and result in a low permeability. However, inadequate
compaction gives a loose matrix, less durable and more likely to
Fresh pervious concrete is characterized by having a very low be detached from the surface.
slump, even zero slumps (Fig. 6). The fresh concretes are very stiff The influence of the studied cases on the compressive strength
since they contain less water and cement paste. This characteristic is presented in Table 5. It can be noted that the compressive
makes it suitable for products prefabrication as pavers. strength is higher in Case no. 6: Filling in three layers, then vibra-
Table 4 presents the test results of bulk density and initial tion for 5 s after each layer without pressure (P = 0 kPa). The fol-
porosity of all pervious concrete mixture at the fresh state, lowing hypotheses could explain this phenomenon:

Cement paste Crushed crepidula

1 cm

Pores Gravel Crushed crepidula Pores Gravel Pores

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 11. Structural arrangement of the concrete matrix with SBP (a) and schematic model of this arrangement before (b) and after (c) the incorporation of SBP.
156 D.H. Nguyen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 49 (2013) 151–160

Splitting tensile strength at 28 days (MPa)

Splitting tensile strength at 28 days (MPa)
3.0 3,0
2.8 2,8
+2.5%
2.6 2,6

2.4 -7% 2,4

R t = 0.137R c + 0.253
2.2 -17% -16% 2,2 2
R = 0.85
2.0 --32% 2,0

1.8 1,8

1.6 1,6

CPCP SPCP1 SPCP2 SPCP3 SPCP4 SPCP5 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Mix Compressive strength at 28 days (MPa)
(a) (b)
Fig. 13. Tensile strength by splitting test at 28 days (a) and the relationship between tensile strength and compressive strength (b).

1950
mordial advantage. Fig. 7 shows the effect of compaction energy on
the compressive strength of CPCP for Case nos. 1–4. A pressure of
1900 7.4 kPa seems to be the optimum pressure to obtain the highest
Bulk density (kg. m )
-3

compressive strength. This value is about 10 times less than the

1850
minimum value recommended by experts for in situ pervious con-
1800 crete (7.4 kPa vs 69 kPa) [25]. This difference could come from the
non vibration for the in situ pervious concrete.
1750
Generally, under a weak compaction, the packing density of
1700 granular matrix is low, gravel grains interlock poorly one to an-
other. As a result, the contact area between the gravel is small,
1650
and therefore, their connection is small. Besides, with an incom-
1600 plete compaction, there are large pores in the concrete structure.
CPCP SPCP1 SPCP2 SPCP3 SPCP4 SPCP5
Consequently, the pervious concrete pavers have a low compres-
Mix sive strength.
Fig. 14. Bulk density for all mixtures.
However, with excessively high pressure, the gravel grains dis-
place with difficultly to get an optimum arrangement, especially
 For the Case nos. 2–5 where the fresh concrete is filled in mold when the cement paste content in the CPCP is not enough to lubri-
into a single thick layer, the natural arrangement of aggregates cate these grains. In fact, the volume of the cement paste in the
becomes difficult under an important self weight of overlying composition of control pervious concrete pavers is 19.5% of the to-
gravels, and the granular packing is not optimized. tal volume of concrete compared with about 25–40% in the ordin-
 In case of filling by three layers, the thickness of each layer is ary concrete. Therefore, according to Section 3.1, the cementitious
less important. Therefore, the fresh concrete can displace easily paste prepared with w/c ratio of 0.3 is very stiff and therefore it is
under the vibration, and the air-void is easily removed to the difficult to efficiently full lubricate the gravel. In addition, in the
surface to have more compact matrix. In addition, the fresh con- pervious concrete matrix, aggregates are coated by a thin layer of
crete can approach into the corners of the mold to ensure one cementitious paste or mortar [26]. The thickness of the paste layer
homogeneous matrix. can be initially calculated using one method in which we have
approximated each aggregate and paste coating as a spherical
Although casting with single layer (Case nos. 2–5) results in a and the volume of compact paste is assumed zero (Fig. 8). Follow-
lower compressive strength compared to Case no. 6), it has one pri- ing this approach, the paste layer thickness of CPCP is about
Compressive strength at 28 days (MPa)

36 18
Porosity accessible to water (%)

17
35
16
34 15
14
Rc= -1.6769Pt+ 70.248
33 13
2
12 R = 0.87
32
11
31 10
9
30 8
CPCP SPCP1 SPCP2 SPCP3 SPCP4 SPCP5 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
Mix Porosity accesible to water (%)
(a) (b)
Fig. 15. Porosity accessible to water (a) and relationship between porosity and compressive strength (b).
 D.H. Nguyen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 49 (2013) 151–160 157

Fig. 16. Representative images of 2D sections of CPCP, (a) scanned and cropped image and (b) processed image (the red areas are the pores). (For interpretation of the
references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

50 100
45 90 In the rest of the study, the pervious concrete pavers with or
Cumulative frequency (%)
Frequency distribtion (%)

40 80 without seashell by product are casted in three layers and vibrated

35 70
for 5 s /layer.
30 60
25 50
20 40 3.3. Mechanical properties
15 30
10 20 3.3.1. Compressive strength
5 10 Results of mechanical test of CPCP show that the compressive
0 0 strength after 7 days reached 98.5% of that at 28 days (Rc-
2 3 4 5 6 7d = 16.19 MPa and Rc-28d = 16.44 MPa). This is due to the type of
Equivalent pore size (mm) cement and the low w/c ratio. Ghafori and Sebaibi reported the
same finding [27,28]. The rapid increasing of performance at early
Fig. 17. Frequency distribution of pore sizes.
age allows some studies on pervious concrete to be conducted at
7 days instead of 28 days of curing as for ordinary concrete [29].
0.32 mm. Under strong pressure, gravels penetrate easily this thin The SPCP have a lower compressive strength than CPCP (see
layer and get in touch directly one with the other (Fig. 9). The ab- Fig. 10). Six hypotheses may explain this result:
sence of cement paste at the contact point causes a weak binding The crushed crepidula shell is fragile than the natural gravel. In
and thereby, a less solid matrix. fact, the Los Angeles coefficient [30] of natural aggregate is lower
In terms of vibration time, the compressive strength of Case no. than that of SBP, respectively 11 and 28.
3 (when mixture is filling in one layer, then vibration with pressure The substitution of gravel with SBP can increase of the total
P = 10 kPa for 15 s) is slightly reduced compared to that of Case no. porosity. In fact, natural gravel has a round shape that allows an
5 (when the mixture is filling in one layer, then vibration with optimum packing density of mixture. By contrast, the SBP have a
pressure P = 10 kPa for 30 s). Increasing the vibration time reduces flat shape, once incorporated, they play a role as a wall, will pre-
the distance between aggregates by eliminating the thin layer of vent the approach of natural aggregates and disturb the granular
cement paste between them; consequently the concrete presents arrangement, thus reduce the compactness (Fig. 11). In addition,
low strength. the SBP size ranging from 2 to 6.3 mm, and cannot be easily
Water permeability coefficient (mm.s -1)
-1)

9 9
Water permeability coefficient (mm.s

Head H = 100 mm Head H = 140 mm

8 8
Head H = 200 mm Head H = 240 mm
7 Head H = 300 mm 7 Head H = 340 mm
6 6
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
CPCP SPCP1 SPCP2 SPCP3 SPCP4 SPCP5 CPCP SPCP1 SPCP2 SPCP3 SPCP4 SPCP5
Mix Mix

Fig. 18. Permeability coefficient by the falling head test. Fig. 19. Permeability coefficient by constant head test.
158 D.H. Nguyen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 49 (2013) 151–160

Water permeability coefficient (mm.s -1)

Water permeability coefficient (mm.s -1)

9 9

8 8

7 7

6 6
K c = 1.077Pt - 29.88
5 5
R 2= 0.83 K c = 0.564Pt - 15.20
4 4
2
R = 0.91
3 3

2 2
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
Porosity accessible to water (%) Porosity accessible to water (%)
(a) (b)
Fig. 20. Relationship between the porosity accessible to water Pt and the water permeability K obtained by the falling head test (a) and the constant head test (b).

inserted in inter granular pores; those characterized by a mean matrix. Secondly, the SBP 4/6.3 mm is more curved; the hollow
diameter of 3.10 mm (see Section 3.4.2). side of the crepidula is difficult to fill with cementitious paste
The crushed crepidula shells are flats, the flakiness index of nat- whereas the amount of cement paste in concrete is limited.
ural aggregates 4/6.3 mm is 20.1 instead of 73 for the case of SBP 4/ It can be also noted that the incorporation of hybrid fraction (2/
6.3 mm. These values were determined through the European 4 mm and 4/6.3 mm) gives a compressive strength almost equiva-
standard EN 933-03 [31]. Hence the surface area of SBP is greater lent to control pervious concrete pavers.
than that of natural aggregate. As a consequence, with the same
amount of cement paste, the coating of cement paste around the 3.3.2. Tensile strength
grains of natural gravel and SBP for SPCP is more slight, probably The splitting tensile strength test was conducted on three cubic
the gravel are not fully covered. One incorrect paste thickness samples at 28 days curing from each mixture and the results are
causes a weak bond of the matrix and therefore, the strength shown in Fig. 13. The tensile strength of pavers varies from 1.78
was worse. to 2.56 MPa.
The high content of organic matter and chlorides can disrupt The tensile strength is proportional to the compressive strength.
the hydration of cement or cause adhesion defects between aggre- The relationship between the resistance Rt and Rc for all pavers is
gate and paste, which can affect the strength of concrete. given by Rt = 0.137Rc + 0.253 (Fig. 13b).
Porous structure of SBP. The porosity of SBP is important, the The influence of the crushed crepidula size on the tensile
porosity of fraction 2/4 mm is 6.12% and fraction 4/6.3 mm is strength seems to be similar to that on the compressive strength
5.51%. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) observations of the of the pavers: the bigger the crushed crepidula shell is, the lower
crushed crepidula shell show a heterogeneous structure (Fig. 12) the tensile strength is.
[4].
The crushed crepidula shells have a strong absorption capacity. 3.4. Physical properties
Despite the supplementary water added to take into account this
characteristic, but a distribution of water to cement, gravel and 3.4.1. Bulk density
crushed crepidula shells according to their absorption coefficient The bulk density measurement shows that the concrete with or
is impractical, the heterogeneous distribution of total mixing water without SBP at 28 days is lightweight with a bulk density ranging
is possibly, this causes a heterogeneous matrix. from 1780 kg m3 to 1868 kg m3 (Fig. 14). Therefore, these con-
The pervious concrete pavers based on SBP 4/6.3 mm have low- cretes are classified as lightweight concretes.
er compressive strength than those made from the SBP 2/4 mm. From Fig. 14, it can be seen that there is no significant difference
Firstly, the flat shape of SBP 4/6.3 mm results in a more fragile in the bulk density between the CPCP and SPCP. This is probably
Water permeability coefficient (mm.s )
Water permeability coefficient (mm.s )

-1
-1

9 9

8 8

7 7

6 6
K v = -0.3384R c + 8.4657 K c= -0.6235R c + 14.98
5 5
2 2
R = 0.96 R = 0.89
4 4

3 3

2 2
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Compressive strength at 28 days (MPa) Compressive strength at 28 days (MPa)
(a) (b)
Fig. 21. Relationship between the compressive strength Rc and the water permeability K obtained by the falling head test (a) and the constant head test (b).
 D.H. Nguyen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 49 (2013) 151–160
due to the fact that the specific gravity of the SBP is similar to that
of the natural gravel (see Table 2). A slight change in density might
be due to the variation of concrete porosity.
3.4.2. Porosity
The porosity was determined using the volumetric method. In
total, 18 samples were investigated for the six mixtures, which
represent three analyses for each mixture.
Fig. 15 shows the porosity for all mixtures. It can be noted that
the porosity are very high, vary from 31.8% to 34.9%. The volume of
void increases with the increasing of the replacement content of
SBP 4/6.3 mm. The replacement of gravel by SBP disturbs the gran-
ular arrangement of concrete. The highest porosity is obtained in
the case of 4/6.3 mm SBP.
A linear relationship between porosity and compressive
strength of the concrete can be deduced from both porosity and
compressive strength results (Fig. 15b): Rc = 1.6769  P + 70.248
where P is the porosity of the sample.
The pore size was estimated using the analysis images. Accord-
ing to Fig. 16, the pore space in pervious concretes is seldom reg-
ular. In this method, the pores were considered as the ellipses
and the maximum and minimum diameters of the selected pores
were recorded.
Following the result of image analysis, the characteristic pore
size of control pervious concrete is 3.1 mm (see Fig. 17). This value
complies with the linear relationship found by Neithalath between
the aggregate size (5.15 mm in this research) and characteristic
pores size Dp: Dp = 1.44 + 0.36  Daggregate [21]. This characteristic
pore size value shows that the SBP 4/6.3 mm cannot insert into
these pores. On the contrary, a part of SBP 2/4 mm can fit into these
pores. This could be an explanation of the better behavior of the
pervious concrete made with seashell by-products 2/4 mm.
3.5. Water permeability
The main purpose of pervious concrete is to achieve an ade-
quate porosity and a continuous network so that water can easily
pass through. As prescribed in the technical specification PTV
122 [32] the permeability of pavers must be at least
5.4  102 mm/s.
Figs. 18 and 19 show the permeability coefficient obtained by
the falling head test and the constant for all mixes of Table 3.
According to these figures, the permeability increases with in-
crease of the amount of SBP introduced. These results can be inter-
preted by the porosity of the material which increases with the
percentage of SBP introduced (Fig. 20). The infiltration rate of con-
crete is also connected to the porous network and pore size. These
components of the porous structure will be examined in future
studies.
Permeability is also related to the compressive strength. Indeed,
the variation of the compressive strength of pervious concrete is
inversely proportional to the permeability (Fig. 21).
An important difference of the permeability coefficient K ob-
tained by two methods was observed. Indeed, the falling head test
is suitable for materials with low permeability; while the concrete
studied in this research have a high permeability.
The permeability coefficients are consistent with porosity, rang-
ing from 3 mm/s to 8.4 mm/s. Other authors show similar results
with typical permeability ranging from 2 mm/s to 12 mm/s
[10,12,28,33]. For example, from the falling head test, Tennis
et al. [10] reported one permeability coefficient of 6 mm/s and
33% for porosity. According to Fig. 19 for the case SPCP3 and SPCP4,
our results show the same value which is around 6 mm/s. How-
ever, our order of magnitude differs from the result reported by
some other researchers. According to Zouaghi et al. [24] and Mein-
inger [34], with a porosity of 35%, permeability coefficient ranges
159
from 35 mm/s [34] to 40 mm/s [24]. However, the total porosity
is not the only factor influencing the permeability. Zouaghi and
Meininger used large gravel (5–40 mm) for their pervious concrete
with larger pore size than in our work.
The value of permeability coefficient is influenced by the
change of head loss in the case of the constant head test
(Fig. 19). Clearly, permeability coefficient decreases with increas-
ing water head of 100 mm to 300 mm whatever the SBP quantity.
This is probably caused by change in water flow pattern from stea-
dy to turbulent when the piezometric head is important. The local
circular currents develop and increase greatly the flow resistance.
Zouaghi and Aoki had shown the same phenomenon [24,35]. In
addition, by one synthesis of permeability coefficient variation, it
is recommended that laboratory permeability test be performed
at head loss of 150 mm since at this level it was ease to maintain
a constant water flow.
4. Conclusions
Experimental tests performed on pervious concrete pavers
based seashell by-products confirm the feasibility of valorization
of this waste as a replacement in the composition of concrete.
Moreover, the diameter of Seashell By-Products ranging (SBP) be-
tween 2 mm and 6 mm, these SBP are located in the granular range
of gravel (2/6 mm). Thus, the incorporation of the SBP is achieved
by substituting by weight a part of gravel by crushed shell. Two dif-
ferent fractions of crushed crepidula shell were used (2/4 mm and
4/6.3 mm). Then, several mixtures were selected at different quan-
tity of crushed crepidula shell.
The main results of this work are:
 Pervious concrete pavers based on SBP have a mechanical
strength comparable to that of raw pervious concrete pavers
without SBP.
 SBP size strongly influences the granular arrangement of con-
crete matrix and consequently the compressive and tensile
strength. Apparently, SBP 2/4 mm provides a good compromise
for the overall composition of the matrix. In fact, with a smaller
size, one part of SBP 2/4 mm can insert into the pore in decreas-
ing the porosity. By contrast, category 4/6.3 mm disrupts the
granular arrangement resulting in a decrease in mechanical
strength and promoting the water infiltration.
 The compaction methods are a major factor that influences the
mechanical strength of pavers. A very low or too important
compaction decreases strongly the concrete performance. For
the case of compaction with pressure into a single layer, a pres-
sure of 7.4 kPa is optimal to have good strength. However, the
filling into three-layer consecutive gives better strength.
 In this research, pervious concrete pavers have high water per-
meability due to the presence of an interconnected porous sys-
tem. Water permeability varies from 3 mm/s to 8.4 mm/s. These
results are close to those of other authors previously
mentioned.
 The method of measurement of permeability of pervious con-
crete pavers influences permeability coefficient. For the con-
stant head method in laboratory, a head loss of 150 mm is
recommended since at this level it was easy to maintain a con-
stant water flow.
 Porosity studied in this research is two times higher than that of
ordinary concrete, which makes the concrete lighter (density
1700–1800 kg m3) with low mechanical strength.
With a very high permeability, it is possible to rework the mix-
ture proportions to optimize the compactness of the material while
maintaining permeability complies fully with the requirements
imposed by the technical specification PTV 122.
160 D.H. Nguyen et al. / Construction and Building Materials 49 (2013) 151–160
Acknowledgements
The work presented in this article is part of a collaborative pro-
ject VECOP cofinanced by ERDF and the Regions of Basse-Norman-
die et Bretagne (France). The authors wish to thank the co-
financiers and all project partners for their support.
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