Case Studies in Construction Materials 11 (2019) e00274

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Case Studies in Construction Materials

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Stormwater retention using pervious concrete pavement:

Great Western Sydney case study
Mohsen Sartipib , Farid Sartipia,*
a
Western Sydney University, Australia
b
Shahid Beheshti University, Iran

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: Urban stormwater runoff is evaluated to be in a higher volume when it is compared to the
Received 2 July 2019 natural stormwater runoff. This is mainly due to the higher ratio of impervious surfaces in
Received in revised form 25 July 2019 the urban texture which results in less water absorption by the ground. Many organizations
Accepted 30 July 2019
around the world is promoting the concept of sustainable drainage system which are, in
fact, focusing on not only the quantity of the stormwater retention, but also takes the
Keywords: quality of the stored water in account. This study aims to assess the feasibility of the
Pervious concrete
application of pervious concrete pavements. An area of 754 km2 of the Western suburbs of
Stormwater
Sustainable urban development
Sydney has been selected for the case study. Considering the average rainfall in the selected
region along with the state government plan on urban developments of the region, it is
crucial to evaluate a suitable stormwater retention system. The rainfall data had been
collected from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Laboratory experiments had been run
to assess the compressive strength of the concrete samples at the age of 7 days.
Permeability of the samples had been tested in order to match up the rainfall demand of the
region. Workability tests had also been conducted to provide a more comprehensive view
on the performance of the proposed pervious concrete also in the fresh state.
© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction

The Brundtland Commission defines sustainable development as“a development that fulfils the needs of the present
generation, without compromising the ability of the future generations to fulfil their needs.” Sustainability implies that the
supply of “natural capital” is maintained. The use of renewable sources—such as water—should not exceed the rate of
renewal, the use of non-renewable resource—like fossil fuel—should be such that they will not be exhausted before
alternative sources are available, and fundamental ecological processes and structures should be maintained. In the
definitions of sustainable development at least four key elements can be distinguished. These elements comprise the core of
the concept of sustainable development. Every definition is based on some or all of these elements: (a) needs of the present
generation; (b) needs of future generations; (c) carrying capacity of supporting systems (or quantity and quality of
supporting systems); (d) maintaining system integrity (the coherence between supporting systems) [1]. The current paper is
aiming to evaluate the feasibility of the application of pervious pavements in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, however, a
similar workflow as presented can be implemented for other regions by considering the crucial parts of the design. To
achieve this ultimate objective, this paper, first evaluates the existing data published by the Bureau of Meteorology in order

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sartipimohsen@yahoo.com, mohsen.sartipi@iconsmat.com.au (M. Sartipi), f.sartipi@westernsydney.edu.au (F. Sartipi).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscm.2019.e00274
2214-5095/© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
2 M. Sartipi, F. Sartipi / Case Studies in Construction Materials 11 (2019) e00274

to be able to have an understanding of the status quo. The area of case study is then outlined using google map tools. Based on
the data obtained, a concrete mix design had been modified in the laboratory which would be able to address the stormwater
retention calculated. Laboratory test are aiming to evaluate the permeability and 7 days’ compressive strength.
The population of the Western Sydney is anticipated to grow by 1 million by the year 2035. Major infrastructure projects
are now underway to provide the requirements in meeting the existing demand derived from the population growth. To
increase the transport capacity of the region, the Australian government is planned to pave almost 60 km of roads and
pavements as part of the main infrastructure plan [2,3]. Land use modifications as part of the urban development plans,
increases the impervious surface area, leading to a higher stormwater runoff volume by changing the surface runoff
hydrograph [4]. Urbanization is the most contributing factor causing largest changes, volumes and patterns of flow running
from catchments to streams and rivers. The urban water system has three elements; water supply, wastewater and
stormwater [5]. A well designed stormwater drainage system minimizes the flood risk and its social consequences such as
traffic congestions during heavy rainfalls.
The Western Suburbs of Sydney recorded an average annual rainfall of 598.69 mm. Compared to the average annual
rainfall over the whole continent in 2017 which was 504.06 mm, the Sydney’s Western Suburbs are receiving almost 1 cm
more rainfall than the other parts of Australia [6]. This indicates the fact that a comprehensive infrastructure plan especially
by considering the newly proposed airport to be built in Badgerys Creek, needs more attention in stormwater retention. The
concept of Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) aims to improve the ability of urban environments to capture, treat and re-
use stormwater before it has the chance to pollute and degrade our creeks and rivers. Sydney Water is working closely with a
number of Councils across Sydney to deliver a range of WSUD projects which will have many benefits including but not
limited to [7]:

Reducing the quantity of stormwater runoff

Improving the quality of stormwater runoff

Protecting and restoring creeks and rivers

Improving wildlife habitat

Improving the appearance of streets and parks

Cooling the local environment by retaining water

According to the stormwater catchment map published by the Sydney Water, no catchment has been dedicated for the
Western Suburbs of Sydney (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Sydney metropolitan stormwater catchment map [8].

 M. Sartipi, F. Sartipi / Case Studies in Construction Materials 11 (2019) e00274 3

The topography of the region is also a significant factor in the stormwater collection. Since engineers are always persisting
on using the natural forces at its optimum point, in stormwater retention, it is crucial to maximize the water displacement by
the gravity force as opposed to energy consuming hydraulic pumping methods.
The Sydney Basin Bioregion lies on the east coast and covers a large part of the catchments of the Hawkesbury-Nepean,
Hunter and Shoalhaven river systems. It consists of a geological basin filled with near horizontal sandstones and shales of
Permian to Triassic age that overlie older basement rocks of the Lachlan Fold Belt. The sedimentary rocks have been subject to
uplift with gentle folding and minor faulting during the formation of the Great Dividing Range [9]. Fig. 2 is the map illustrates
the topology of the Western suburbs of Sydney.
The current study aims to develop a sustainable approach for a pervious paving method in such a way to facilitate the
WSUD. Pervious concrete as a promising concept is being evaluated under various assessments including mechanical and
workability performance and its passing ability.
Although not a new technology (it was first used in 1852), pervious concrete is receiving renewed interest, partly because
of the new effective legislations in the context of green industry [11]. Pervious concrete also referred to as permeable
concrete or porous concrete is a mixture of Portland cement, uniform coarse aggregate, with either a small amount of or
without fine aggregate and water creating a porous structure with interconnected voids that drains off the water quickly. A
thin layer cement base in this type of concrete is mainly carrying out the loads applied to the specimen [12]. The pervious
concrete pavement possess many advantages included by not limited in the following list:

Instant drainage of stormwater

Vehicles’ noise absorption due to the high porosity

Avoiding the slippery glisten surfaces in the rainy condition and thus, increasing the roads safety

The high heat absorption capacity of this type concrete helps in reducing the effects of heat island phenomenon [13].

The low strength of pervious concrete slabs prevents its capability to be used as a roadway with high traffic. However, it is
more suitable for walkways and parking lots [14–16]. Pervious concrete has been included in the manual of technologies
suggested by the Environmental Protection Agency for stormwater runoff management (EPA, 1999), can be used to earn
credits under the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC), it is a thermally insulating material and can be used to
reduce acoustic noise in roads [17]. The areas of application of such material could be seen as in noise barriers, swimming
pool decks, hydraulic structures, slope stabilizations, and subbase for conventional concrete pavements. The most favourite
area of applications, however, are sidewalks and pathways including residential roads, alleys and driveways.
Storm water regulations usually sets limit for the total amount of pollution in urban streams. There are two widely
accepted approach: 1) reducing the overall runoff; 2) reducing the level of pollution contained in runoff. From the
environmental benefits of utilizing such techniques in the pavements is the allowance for trees planted in the urban area to

Fig. 2. Topographic map of Sydney's Western Suburb [10].

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Table 1
Types and sources of stormwater contaminants.

Contaminant Primary source

Metals: lead, zinc, cadmium, copper, iron, nickel, Tyre wear, motor oil, grease, exhaust wear, moving engine parts, break lining, metal plating,
chromium fuel
Sediment Pavement wear, maintenance, construction, vehicle, erosion, wind
Petroleum hydrocarbons Oil spills, leaks, anti-freeze, hydraulic fluids, leachate from pavement
Nutrients-phosphorus, nitrogen Fertiliser, decomposing organic matter
Rubber Tyre wear

absorb more water. It provides a solution for landscapers and architects to use greenery in parking lots and paved urban area
[18]. In the sense of reducing the level of pollution, pervious pavements have shown and effective functionality in the
removal of pollutants mainly because of the infiltration process that occurs. Table 1 shows the types and source of the
stormwater contaminants [19]:

2. Permeability

Two main important characteristics of a permeable substrate are hydraulic conductivity (water permeability) and the
storage capacity. Water permeability quantitatively measures the flow of water through the substrate passages. It is based on
the Darcy’s law on the flow of liquid throughout a porous media [17]. There are several methods for measuring the
permeability of the pervious materials based on the Darcy’s law and the most common are the constant head and falling head
permeameter methods. Flow velocity inside the porous media will affect the flow regime and therefore the hydraulic
conductivity measurements. Hydraulic conductivity measurements are based on the assumption of laminar flow and under
turbulent flow the assumptions on which Darcy’s law is based are no longer valid. It is generally accepted that the Darcy’s law
is valid while the Reynolds number remains below 1. Reynolds number for a flow of liquids through the porous media is

Fig. 3. Average rainfall in Sydney metropolitan in 2018 [6].

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defined as shown in equation 1 [20,21].

qd
Re ¼
n
Equation 1 Reynold's number
Where Rep is the Reynolds number for the particular fluid porous media flow situation, d is the characteristic length
related to the porous media [22]; q is the specific discharge as previously defined (cm s1) and is the kinematic viscosity of the
fluid (cm2 s1). The characteristic length d is generally related to the pore size or the diameter of the particles forming the
porous media. It is usual for field placed pervious concrete to have particle sizes between 0.6 and 1.5 cm, pore sizes between
0.1 and 1.0 cm, and flow rates between 0.2 to 0.5 cm/s [18]. For water flowing through pervious concrete at 20  C the values of
the Rep as derived from Equation 1, would be between 1 and 60, indicating a transitional flow between laminar and turbulent
regime.
It is widely accepted that the hydraulic conductivity is a factor of three major properties: porosity, conductance and
tortuosity. It is understood that the measurements of conductance and the tortuosity are relatively difficult complex
processes compared to porosity. Thus, the dominant factor in measuring the hydraulic conductivity is the porosity of the
pervious concrete. The calculation of the porosity of pervious samples is inherently simple and a comprehensive
establishment can be achieved for the correlation of porosity and the hydraulic conductivity which serves a preliminary role
in stormwater management and sustainable urban development [17].

3. Discussion

Of the data gathered from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, the average rainfall recorded in 13 stations was
598.69 mm in 2018. Fig. 3 shows the average rainfall recorded from the weather stations across the Sydney metropolitan.
The area of the selected region for the sake of this study in which all the 13 weather stations is surrounded in had been
calculated using google map tools totalling to 754 km2 (Fig. 4).
From the data above, the multiplication of area by the average rainfall results in the volume of stormwater in 2018 in the
Western suburbs of Sydney.
Area  Average rainf all ¼ Stormwater volume
Equation 2 - Stormwater calculation
754,000,000  0.59869 = 451,412,260 m3 Western Sydney average stormwater volume

Fig. 4. Area of the selected region [23].

6 M. Sartipi, F. Sartipi / Case Studies in Construction Materials 11 (2019) e00274

450 cubic million meters of stormwater has to be collected from the urban surface area of the Western Suburbs of Sydney.
Given the pavement surface area as Ap in the proposed model, it can be calculated that:

Stormwater volume
0 ¼ Pavement permeability  retention time
Total pavement s surf ace area
Equation 3 - Correlation of retention time and permeability
Thus, based on the equation above, two different pervious concrete for paving purposes had been designed and evaluated
under mechanical tests such as permeability, compressive strength, mini slump. The most important factor amongst the
output data is set as to be the results of the permeability test since the equation 3 determines the retention time based on this
parameter.
Samples were prepared and tested for the compressive strength based on the series of Australian standards noted in AS
1012 for methods of testing concrete [24–27]. The mix portion of each sample is listed in Table 2. The components were
mixed for a duration of 3 min in the 15 litter capacity concrete mixer. Pumice used had a mean diameter of 2.5 mm purchased
form an external supplier. The superplasticizer used is classified as polycarboxylic based superplasticizer.
The recorded mini slump table records were almost “zero” with a negligible less than a millimetre cone drop for the fresh
state of the mix. The mould size of 5  5 x 5 cm had been selected for the compressive test with the loading rate of 20 MPa per
minute. Samples were cured with sealing wraps for the first three days to avoid the evaporation of the water content. The
duration for vibrating the samples in order to fill the corners of the mould is an important factor in the gained porosity of the
samples. For the commercial scale of paving with such material it is highly recommended to employ high skilled concreters
to finish the pervious concrete in a desired manner. Lack of silica fume in the mix number 2 was incorporating a higher
density, lower porosity and a higher compressive strength. (Fig. 5) (Table 3).
The saturated hydraulic conductivity was measured by a simple test designed following the equation below:
H1  H0
b¼ ðcm=sÞ
t
Equation 4 Hydraulic conductivity measurement
Water were poured instantly for a volume of 1 L from the inlet on top of the sample and the whole apparatus had been
sealed around the shell to avoid the horizontal permeability affecting the measurement. The time in which the whole 1 litter
of water passed through the sample were recorded by chronometer. (Fig. 6) (Table 4).
The diameter of the cylinder was measures as 10 cm. Given the cross sectional area of the sample as 78.5 cm2, the drop
loss can be resulted as to be equal to 12.73 cm. Thus, the β1 = 1.06 cm/s and β2 = 0.82 cm/s. It can be understood that samples
containing silica fume powder are more permeable than the one without.
From the laboratory experimental data and the substitution of which in the equation number 3, the stormwater retention
time can be resulted simply by having the total pavement surface area. Due to the uncertainties exist in the nature of
construction project, this paper leaves the input form the pavement surface area to the users’ choice.

4. Conclusion

From the laboratory data attained and the existing NSW government plans regarding the infrastructure development of
the western suburbs of Sydney, in case the pervious pavements are being utilized, the stormwater retention capacity of the
region will be increasing to 0.082 L/s assuming an average pavement thickness of 15 cm for the pavements. This basically
means an instant stormwater collection according the data from the Bureau of the Meteorology on average rainfall of the
region throughout the year. Less traffic congestion due to the dysfunctionality of the roads during the storm time is also one
of the anticipated achievement.
Samples containing silica fume were performed a better permeability and the samples with no silica fume content were
more suitable for higher compressive result.
The workflow for the implementation of pervious pavements in the selected region and beyond could be summarized
respectively as: 1) Identifying the amount of rainfall in the region; 2) Topographic analysis of the region in order to have a
comprehensive understanding of ground slopes in the region; 3) Design of the pervious concrete mix in accordance with the
water catchment demand.

Table 2
Pervious concrete mix portion.

Mix number Cement Silica fume Pumice SP Water

1 1 0.5 2.5 0.036 0.22
2 1 0 0.5 0.036 0.22
 M. Sartipi, F. Sartipi / Case Studies in Construction Materials 11 (2019) e00274 7

Fig. 5. (Top) The low workability of the pervious concrete in the fresh state; (Bottom) Surface roughness of the sample.

Table 3
Compressive results of the mix designs (MPa).

Mix number 7 days compressive strength [28]

1 2 3 mean
1 10.26 9.14 11.87 10.42
2 12.36 13.02 11.64 12.34

Fig. 6. demonstration of the permeability test method.

Table 4
Permeability test results.

Sample code Passing time (s) Passing length [22] Passing volume (L)
1 12 15 1
2 15 13 1
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5. Recommendations

Due to the high roughness of the surface of the pervious concrete, a solution to smoothen the surface of the samples can be
a step forward.

The high porosity of the presented concrete model allows the growth of vegetation on the pavement which can be seen as a
defect in the long term performance. The incorporation of some chemical admixture in the mix can prohibit the unwanted
growth of vegetation.

A higher workability for pervious concrete can reduce the cost of hiring labours considerably.

The application of air entraining chemical admixtures might be an appropriate to enhance the mechanical properties of
such material.

The high cement content of the pervious concrete mix is a negative point by taking the cement industry carbon footprint.
The application of pervious geopolymer in this case, enhances the environmental impacts of pervious pavements.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The information provided in the current manuscript is based on the data available on the public domain referenced at the
end of the paper. Hereby, the authors declare no conflict of interest upon the submission and publication of the paper.

Acknowledgements

The present research paper including the supply of materials for laboratory experiments had been funded by the Institute
of Construction Materials (ICONSMAT). Western Sydney University had provided an enormous amount of support in the
accomplishments of this paper.

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary material related to this article can be found, in the online version, at doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
cscm.2019.e00274.

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