Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 5160

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Construction and Building Materials

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

Material design and characterization of high performance pervious

concrete
Rui Zhong, Kay Wille
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Connecticut, 261 Glenbrook Road, Unit 3037, Storrs, CT 06269-3037, United States

h i g h l i g h t s

! Development of high performance pervious concrete (HPPC) to advance and broaden the application of pervious concrete.
! Increase of strength and durability without sacrificing the hydraulic conductivity through tailored mix design.
! Use of ultra-high performance matrix for pervious concrete design.
! Material characterization regarding compressive behavior, hydraulic conductivity and freezethaw resistance.

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

Article history: Continued urbanization and population growth further the growth of impervious urban areas, leading
Received 5 June 2015 to concerning adverse environmental and societal impacts. Pervious concrete has remarkable potential
Received in revised form 3 August 2015 to counteract these adverse impacts while providing necessary structural integrity, thus supporting
Accepted 6 August 2015
continued urbanization. Broader application of pervious concrete could be achieved through increased
Available online 24 August 2015
raveling resistance and enhanced durability performance. This research emphasizes the development
and characterization of high performance pervious concrete aiming at improved mechanical resistance
Keywords:
and advanced durability properties. In pursuit of this goal an ultra-high performance cement-based
Pervious concrete
High performance
matrix with compressive strengths in excess of 150 MPa (22 ksi) and high durability properties are
Compressive strength designed and applied to the mixture design concept of pervious concrete. The research results show
Hydraulic conductivity that compressive strength and elastic modulus increase by up to 150% and 100%, respectively, without
Durability sacrificing the hydraulic conductivity of the concrete. Furthermore, freezethaw tests have been
Freezethaw carried out to compare the durability performance of conventional pervious concrete with high
Porosity performance pervious concrete. Based on enhanced mechanical properties as well as improved
durability, high performance pervious concrete potentially allows extending the application of
pervious concrete and thus carries a vital potential in effectively counteracting the growth of
impervious urban areas.
! 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction surface to underlying layers [2] leading to the following features

By 2050 continued growth of population and urbanization will
potentially add 2.5 billion people to the worlds urban population
[1]. This trend presses the extension of urban areas and accompa-
nying impermeable surfaces. Pervious concrete (PC), also referred
to as porous or permeable concrete, is a porous media which pri-
marily consists of open-graded aggregates bonded by cement-
based matrix. The connected pores, typically in the range of 15%
to 30% per volume, allow air and fluids to pass easily from the
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: ruz10002@engr.uconn.edu (R. Zhong), kwille@engr.uconn.edu
(K. Wille).
in comparison to conventional impervious concrete (Fig. 1):
Environmentally friendly potential combined with enhanced
traffic safety [312] promotes pervious concrete as construction
material for parking lots and road surfaces. However, broader
application of pervious concrete could be achieved through miti-
gating the following three risks:
! Risk of clogging by organic and inorganic material reduces the
hydraulic conductivity.
! Limited bond strength between the aggregates increases the
risk of surface raveling, excessive cracking and wearing, leading
to accelerated deterioration especially under high-volume and
heavy load traffic.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.08.027
0950-0618/! 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
52 R. Zhong, K. Wille / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 5160
Fig. 1. Comparison of pervious concrete to impervious concrete.
! High proportion of material surface area exposed to environ-
mental aggressors increases the risk of loss of structural integ-
rity due to reduced durability.
Research on long-term surface permeability has shown that
clogging particles asymptotically reduce the permeability, albeit
to an infiltration rate still considered to be high [13].
Additionally research results point out that the loss of permeability
depends on the clogging particle size to pore size ratio, leading to
losses in the range of negligible to 80% [14]. On-site experience has
also shown that clogging can be successfully minimized with
proper material installation and maintenance using vacuum
sweeping or pressure cleaning [15,16]. While clogging of pervious
concrete becomes less concerning, its limited bond strength and
durability properties remain an unresolved issue.
Motivated by the application potential of pervious concrete and
the potential benefits of enhancing bond strength and durability
properties, this research emphasizes the development of high per-
formance pervious concrete.
2. Conceptual approach
The following principles are followed to design high perfor-
mance pervious concrete (HPPC):
I. Employment of optimized ultra-high performance matrix.
Ultra-high performance matrix (UHPM) is replacing conven-
tional matrix to cover the aggregate and bind them together
(Fig. 2).
Based on prior research [17] the incorporation of silica fume
(SF) and ultra-fine silica powder (SP) in tailored proportion signif-
icantly improves the packing density of the fine particle system of
Fig. 2. Schematic comparison of pervious concrete employing different matrices.
UHPM. Fig. 3 illustrates the packing density of matrices of different
performance levels.
II. Enhanced interfacial transition zone (ITZ) between matrix and
aggregate. This is achieved through the incorporation of sil-
ica fume and the use of MPEG type polycarboxylate ether
(PCE) based high range water reducer (HRWR). Silica fume
densifies the matrix through pozzolanic reaction and filler
effect (Fig. 4). MPEG type PCE is able to efficiently disperse
the fine particle system due to its balanced affinity to
cement, silica fume and silica powder [18]. This enables w/
c ratio as low as 0.2 leading to densification of the
microstructure.
III. Balanced aggregate to binder (A/B) ratio and tailored aggregate
size. High performance pervious concrete (HPPC) aims at
higher bond strength (indirectly evaluated by the compres-
sive strength of the material) without sacrificing its func-
tional requirement to allow water penetrating through.
Higher amount of matrix (lower A/B ratio) leads to reduced
total porosity and hydraulic conductivity but higher com-
pressive strength whereas lower amount of matrix (higher
A/B ratio) results in increased total porosity and hydraulic
conductivity but lower compressive strength. Additionally,
the aggregate size affects the pore system characteristics
(total porosity, pore size and its distribution) and thus the
compressive strength and hydraulic conductivity [19].
Therefore a balanced A/B ratio and tailored aggregate size
are necessary to satisfy both of the competing performance
criteria.
Other approaches, such as reduction in A/B ratio, incorporation
of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), and addition of
fine sand or polymer modification of matrix, are also employed
 R. Zhong, K. Wille / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 5160 53

Fig. 3. Illustration of packing density of matrices of different performance levels.

(a) NSM (b) UHPM

Fig. 4. Microstructure of different matrices (7 days) using SEM.

Table 1
Matrix proportion and compressive strength. 3. Experimental study

Constituent Proportions by weight

3.1. Materials
UHPM NSM
Based on prior research results on material design of ultra-high performance
Cement 1 1
concrete [17] and on high performance pervious concrete (HPPC) [19], the following
Silica fume 0.25 0.00
materials are recommended:
Silica powder 0.25 0.00
Water 0.22 0.55
! Portland cement type I with a high C3S content (here 74%), a moderate fineness
HRWR 0.036 0.000
(here 3930 cm2/g Blaine value), a low C3A content (here 5%) and meeting ASTM
Compressive strength (MPa) 174 29
C150 standard specification for Portland cement.
! Silica fume with a very low carbon content (here 0.3%). The median particle size
of SF used for this research is 0.4 lm.
by researchers to improve the bond between the aggregates and
! Supplemental material with median particle size between silica fume and
therefore the compressive strength of pervious concrete. Detailed cement. Silica powder with a median particle size of 1.7 lm was used in this
discussion is presented in the following section. research.

Table 2
Mixture proportions for mechanical properties test.

Series Mixture IDa A/B Aggregate size (mm) Matrix strength (MPa)
HPPC UHPM-2.5-1.19 2.5 1.19 174
UHPM-3.0-1.19 3.0 1.19 174
UHPM-3.5-1.19 3.5 1.19 174
UHPM-2.5-4.75 2.5 4.75 174
UHPM-3.0-4.75 3.0 4.75 174
UHPM-3.5-4.75 3.5 4.75 174
PC NSM-2.5-1.19 2.5 1.19 29
NSM-3.0-1.19 3.0 1.19 29
NSM-3.5-1.19 3.5 1.19 29
NSM-2.5-4.75 2.5 4.75 29
NSM-3.0-4.75 3.0 4.75 29
NSM-3.5-4.75 3.5 4.75 29
a
Identifications start with the type of matrix, followed by the aggregate to binder ratio (A/B) and the aggregate size d.
54 R. Zhong, K. Wille / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 5160

Table 3
Mixture proportions and test conditions of matrices for FT test.

Series Mixture IDa Test condition

NSM NSM-P Partially submerged
NSM-F Fully submerged
UHPM UHPM-P Partially submerged
UHPM-F Fully submerged
a
Mix identifications starts with the type of matrix, followed by test condition. P
and F stand for partially and fully submerged, respectively.

Table 4
Mixture proportions and test conditions of pervious concrete for FT test.

Series Mixture IDa Matrix Test condition

PC NSM-3.0-1.19-P NSM Partially submerged
NSM-3.0-1.19-F NSM Fully submerged Fig. 6. Pervious concrete compression test setup.

HPPC UHPM-3.0-1.19-P UHPM Partially submerged

UHPM-3.0-1.19-F UHPM Fully submerged
a
Mix identifications starts with the type of matrix, followed by the aggregate to
binder ratio A/B, aggregate size in millimeter and test condition. P and F stand for
partially and fully submerged, respectively.

! MPEG type polycarboxylate ether (PCE) high range water reducer (HRWR).
! Washed aggregate with 99% content of silicon dioxide.

The proportions of the matrices are summarized in Table 1.

3.2. Mixture proportion

3.2.1. For mechanical properties test

In total 12 mixtures were proportioned with varying matrix strength, aggregate
to binder ratio (A/B) by weight and aggregate size. Binder is defined here as the sum
of all fine powders, water and admixtures. The mixture proportions are listed in
Table 2.

3.2.2. For freezethaw durability test

Specimens with varying matrix type (NSM and UHPM) and test condition (par-
tially or fully submerged) were prepared to investigate the freezethaw (FT) resis-
tance of pervious concrete. Tables 3 and 4 summarize the mix proportions and test
conditions (partially or fully submerged) of the matrices and pervious concrete for
FT test, respectively. Partially submerged was achieved by adjusting the water
level to half of the specimen height.
Fig. 7. Schematic definition of linearity and energy absorption capacity.
3.3. Specimen preparation and test method

3.3.1. Compressive strength test
The compressive strength of matrix was determined in accordance with ASTM
C109/C109M-13. Loading faces of the cubic specimen were ground before testing to
assure plane surface and thus high consistency of test results (Fig. 5).
The compressive strength of pervious concrete was determined following ASTM
C39 with displacement controlled load application at a rate of 0.5 mm/min. About
6 mm (1/4 inch) was cut from each load surface of the cylinder (6 inch in height
and 3 inch in diameter). Both ends were sulfur capped prior to testing.
Longitudinal displacement was measured by three LVDTs as shown in Fig. 6.
For each specimen a stress versus strain curve was obtained from which the
compressive strength, elastic modulus, strain at peak stress, and energy absorption
capacity were calculated. The energy absorption capacity is defined as the area
under the stress versus strain curve up to the strain at peak stress (Fig. 7).
Furthermore linearity of the ascending part was determined using Eq. (1) following
ASTM C469M.
k Et =Es 1
3.3.2. Porosity and hydraulic conductivity test
The procedure for porosity test has been reported in prior research and inter-
ested readers are referred to [19] for detailed information. Since the hydraulic con-
ductivity of pervious concrete (>10%3 m/s) is several orders of magnitude larger
than conventional impervious concrete (<10%12 m/s) due to the large volume and

d) UHPM cube e) Debris from tested

a) Before grinding b) After 60 sec. c) After 3 min.
under test UHPM cube
Fig. 5. Specimen preparation (cube 50 & 50 & 50 mm [2 & 2 & 2 in.]) and failure of UHPM.
 R. Zhong, K. Wille / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 5160 55

Fig. 8. Hydraulic conductivity test rig.

interconnected pore system, conventional methods used to measure the water

transport property of normal concrete are not applicable. A constant head perme-
ameter was designed in the laboratory. The basic design consisted of a 102 mm
diameter clear PVC pipe U shape assembly as shown in Fig. 8. The specimens were
cut one inch from each end and sealed by shrink wrap to prevent lateral
penetration.
The outflow of the system over time was tracked by an ADAM CBK Model Scale
with 16 kg capacity and 0.0005 kg precision. AdamDU data acquisition software Fig. 10. Stress versus strain curve for NSM-2.5-1.19 and UHPM-2.5-1.19.
was used to record the data continuously over 45 s. Three minutes were allowed
after the start of the test to let the system reach dynamic equilibrium. From each
experimental data set, the middle 35 s were selected as subset for calculating the 4. Results and discussion
flow rate of water. Eq. (2) was used for hydraulic conductivity calculation:

QL 4.1. Compressive strength of pervious concrete

K 2
Ah
where K is the hydraulic conductivity, Q is the flow rate of water, L is the length of
the sample (here 15 cm), A is the cross sectional area of the sample (here 46 cm2),
and h is the water head difference of the in-flow and out-flow (here 2631 cm).
3.3.3. FT durability test
The FT test was conducted according to the ASTM C666-03. Procedure A, rapid
FT in water, was followed. At the beginning of each test, specimens were either
partially or fully submerged in water. The specimens were regularly taken out of
the FT test table in a thawed condition and, after having been dried in the labora-
tory environment, tested in fundamental transverse frequency. The specimens were
then returned to the steel holder to positions according to predetermined rotation
schedule. Specimens were removed once they had been subjected to 300 cycles or
their relative dynamic modulus of elasticity (RDME) dropped below 60% of the ini-
tial value. The RDME was calculated as follows:
n2c
Pc & 100 3
n2
where Pc is the relative dynamic modulus of elasticity (RDME) after c FT cycles, n is
the fundamental transverse frequency at 0 FT cycles and nc is the fundamental
transverse frequency after c FT cycles.
Bond strength between the aggregates is indirectly evaluated by
the mechanical performance of the pervious concrete specimens
under uniaxial compression. The compressive strength of conven-
tional pervious concrete (PC) is usually lower than 20 MPa.
Different strategies (Fig. 9) have been employed by researchers
aiming at improving the strength of pervious concrete. These per-
vious concretes with enhanced compressive strength are desig-
nated as high strength pervious concrete (HSPC) in this research.
Compressive strength over 20 MPa was reported by reducing the
A/B ratio [20,21]. Compressive strength of pervious concrete
exceeding 40 MPa was achieved through the incorporation of sup-
plementary cementitious materials (SCMs) such as silica fume (SF)
and fly ash (FA), polymer modification of the matrix or combina-
tion of SF and fine sand [2224]. It is worth noting that pervious
concrete with compressive strength more than 50 MPa was
reported in literature, however, a 2 MPa mold pressure was applied
during testing and the compressive strength was reduced to
27 MPa when the mold pressure decreased to 1 MPa [25].

Fig. 9. Compressive strength versus total porosity (See above-mentioned references for further information).
56 R. Zhong, K. Wille / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 5160

Fig. 12. Elastic modulus of HPPC and PC.

Fig. 11. Peak strain versus compressive strength.

In this research high performance pervious concrete (HPPC)

with compressive strength over 40 MPa was designed (Fig. 9) fol-
lowing the aforementioned principles: optimized ultra-high per-
formance matrix, enhanced ITZ, balanced A/B ratio and tailored
aggregate size. Influence of matrix strength on compressive
strength versus porosity performance of pervious concrete is sum-
marized in [19].

4.2. Mechanical properties of pervious concrete under uniaxial

compression

Fig. 10 compares the typical stress versus strain relationship for

HPPC and PC. Due to the large pore volume and random nature of
the pore size and its distribution, variation in compressive strength
and strain at peak stress is typically more pronounced for pervious
concrete than for conventional impervious concrete. Equal arc seg-
ment curve averaging method [28] was used to generate the aver-
age stress versus strain curve.
Fig. 10 shows that both the ascending and descending part of Fig. 13. Energy absorption capacity of HPPC & PC.
the stress versus strain curve for HPPC is significantly steeper than
for PC. This indicates higher modulus of elasticity and energy
absorption capacity of HPPC than PC. The strain at peak stress for presented in Table 5. Each data represents an average of three mea-
different mixtures is illustrated in Fig. 11. surements. Standard deviation of linearity is within 5%.
It was observed that the strain at peak stress is comparable for Modulus of elasticity and energy absorption capacity are plot-
HPPC and PC and both are close to the lower limit (0.002) of con- ted against the square root of compressive strength in
ventional concrete [29]. The test results of elastic modulus, strain Figs. 12 and 13, respectively. An increase in compressive strength
at peak stress, energy absorption capacity and linearity are increases the modulus of elasticity and energy absorption capacity.

Table 5
Summary of test results for different mixtures.

Series Mixture /t (%) fc0 (MPa) e (&10%3) Et (MPa) g (kJ/m3) k

UHPM-2.5-1.19 19.8 65.8 1.85 41,300 70.0 1.16
UHPM-3.0-1.19 24.7 52.9 1.65 36,400 47.4 1.14
HPPC UHPM-3.5-1.19 29.2 42.3 1.48 39,700 38.2 1.39
UHPM-2.5-4.75 22.5 34.9 1.78 33,000 39.5 1.68
UHPM-3.5-4.75 30.2 14.6 1.14 26,100 16.0 2.03
NSM-2.5-1.19 17.0 23.2 2.08 22,300 34.2 2.01
NSM-3.0-1.19 27.1 12.4 1.86 22,000 18.0 3.30
PC NSM-3.5-1.19 30.9 8.4 1.68 16,300 11.1 3.28
NSM-2.5-4.75 23.4 16.0 2.18 17,000 26.9 2.31
NSM-3.0-4.75 28.6 10.5 1.80 16,200 15.6 2.79
NSM-3.5-4.75 30.2 8.8 1.44 19,500 12.4 3.20
 R. Zhong, K. Wille / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 5160 57

Table 6
Hydraulic conductivity and porosity of HPPC and PC.

Serial No. Mixture No. /e (%) /t (%) K (mm/s)

HPPC UHSM-2.5-1.19 9.5 19.84 0.25
UHSM-3.0-1.19 15.7 24.65 1.21
UHSM-3.5-1.19 20.6 29.18 1.99
UHSM-2.5-4.75 14.0 22.46 0.52
UHSM-3.0-4.75 23.6 26.97 4.10
UHSM-3.5-4.75 26.7 30.22 5.15
PC NSM-2.5-1.19 13.6 17.02 0.41
NSM-3.0-1.19 23.9 27.06 4.00
NSM-3.5-1.19 29.1 30.94 6.00
NSM-2.5-4.75 20.5 23.35 3.60
NSM-3.0-4.75 25.9 28.59 5.40
NSM-3.5-4.75 28.3 30.18 6.40

Fig. 14. Linearity versus compressive strength.

Fig. 16. Balanced design of HPPC.

porosity and pore size distribution of the connected pore system.

Fig. 15. Correlation between porosity and hydraulic conductivity.
Through linear best fit, similar relationship [30] between the
square root of compressive strength and elastic modulus is
q by the ratio of connected pore volume to the entire volume of
0
observed for pervious concrete (Ec 4880 f c 2800) in compar-
q ductivity of pervious concrete can be achieved by considering vari-
0
ison to conventional concrete (Ec 4734 f c ). It is worth noting
that the relationship does not intend to predict elastic modulus
of elasticity for pervious concrete due to the limited amount of
data, but to indicate the trend between pervious concrete and con-
ventional concrete. The linearity k for different mixtures of pervi-
ous concrete is summarized in Fig. 14 and follows the
relationship of k 10f c
0%0:53
. Similar to conventional concrete, per-
vious concrete behaves more linearly, thus decreasing k, with
increased matrix strength. While k of HPPC ranges between 1.1
and 2, the linearity of normal strength PC ranges between 2 and
3.3 (Table 5).
4.3. Hydraulic conductivity
Hydraulic conductivity K is the key property for the practical
application of pervious concrete. It is mainly dependent on the
Fig. 15 demonstrates the correlation between porosity and hydrau-
lic conductivity for the investigated series. Test results of hydraulic
conductivity (based on Eq. (2)) and porosity of HPPC and PC are
summarized in Table 6.
It is necessary to distinguish between total porosity and effec-
tive porosity. While total porosity is an influential parameter con-
trolling compressive strength [19], effective porosity is used to
correlate to hydraulic conductivity. Effective porosity is defined
the material. Further enhancement in predicting the hydraulic con-
ations in the structure of the pore system, such as pore size, pore
size distribution and connectivity [31].
In this research a correlation factor of R2 = 0.87 was calculated
between hydraulic conductivity and effective porosity, whereas
the correlation to total porosity was R2 = 0.67 and therefore lower
(Fig. 15). The dependence of compressive strength on total porosity
is plotted in Fig. 16. With the increase of porosity, compressive
strength decreases whereas the hydraulic conductivity increases.
Compressive strength and hydraulic conductivity are competing
parameters. It can be seen that all of the PC series possessed
hydraulic conductivity over 1 mm/s, which is a threshold value
for pervious concrete [31,32]. However, this satisfactory hydraulic
conductivity is achieved at the cost of compressive strength, as
indicated by the lower than or close to 20 MPa compressive
strength of PC series. Increasing matrix strength while maintaining
pore volume and pore structure allows an increase the bond
58 R. Zhong, K. Wille / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 5160
Fig. 17. FT resistance of matrices.
(a) NSM-F
(b) UHSM-F
Fig. 18. Matrices subjected to 45 FT cycles.
strength between the aggregates, and thus the compressive
strength of pervious concrete, all without sacrificing hydraulic con-
ductivity. Here, all HPPC series demonstrated increased compres-
sive strength while maintaining a hydraulic conductivity over
1 mm/s. It is worth noting that pervious concrete with compressive
strength in excess of 50 MPa and with hydraulic conductivity
higher than 1 mm/s is achievable (HPPC UHPM-3.0-1.19).
4.4. Durability
Pervious concrete has demonstrated excellent performance in
the Southeastern U.S., but has seen limited use in environments
with significant freezethaw cycles, such as Canada and the
Northern United States [3234]. Using durable UHPM matrix to
cover and bind the aggregates aims at significantly improved dura-
bility. Fig. 17 illustrates the FT test results for the two matrices
under half (H) and full (F) saturation conditions.
The NSM-F specimens served as reference values and disinte-
grated severely after 30 FT cycles as shown in Fig. 18a while the
UHPM-F specimens remained intact (Fig. 18b). It should be noted
that no matrix specimens included any air entrainment.
Furthermore, it has been observed that the deterioration rate of
partially submerged specimens is lower than that of fully
Fig. 19. FT resistance of pervious concrete.
(a) NSM-3.0-1.19-F
(b) UHPM-3.0-1.19-F
Fig. 20. Damage comparison of pervious concrete subjected to 90 FT cycles.
submerged specimens. The influence of the test condition on the
same matrix is more pronounced for NSM than UHPM series,
which might be attributed to the lower permeability of UHPM.
The improved FT durability of UHPM series in comparison to
NSM series can be explained by (1) denser and finer microstruc-
ture, and (2) lower amount of freezable water.
Due to the incorporation of MPEG type PCE based HRWR and
optimized powder size distribution, a better particle packing and
distribution of these fine particles for UHPM series can be achieved
which ultimately result in a denser microstructure. This is con-
firmed by the larger spread value at lower w/c ratio (340 mm)
[19]. Furthermore, the direct consumption of portlandite and for-
mation of additional CSH gel due to pozzolanic reaction of silica
fume (SF) in UHPM series refines the pore system in the matrix
leading to a finer microstructure. The denser and finer microstruc-
ture of UHPM series leads to a reduced pore to pore distance and a
lower possibility of FT failure based on Powers hydraulic pressure
theory [35].
Additionally, enhanced FT performance can be partially attrib-
uted to the difference in w/c ratio of matrix. The w/c ratio of UHPM
series (0.22) is significantly lower than that of NSM series (0.55).
Therefore the amount of freezable water is much less for UHPM
series than that of NSM.
Fig. 19 summarizes the FT testing results for pervious con-
crete. In general, HPPC series demonstrated better FT durability
 R. Zhong, K. Wille / Construction and Building Materials 98 (2015) 5160
than PC series. This may be explained by (1) better durability per-
formance of UHPM in comparison to NSM, (2) improved interface
transition zone (ITZ) and thus improved bond strength between
aggregate and matrix.
It is observed that partially submerged specimens outper-
formed fully submerged specimens for both HPPC and PC. A similar
trend was reported by Guthrie et al. [36]. It should be noted that
the difference is more pronounced at higher FT cycles (after 90
FT cycles), which could be associated to increased crack formation
and thus larger permeability. Fig. 20 compares the damage of spec-
imens subjected to 90 FT cycles. No visible damage was seen for
UHPM-3.0-1.19-F specimen whereas the NSM-3.0-1.19-F specimen
was severely damaged. It is worth pointing out that the designed
HPPC in this research can survive 210 FT cycles under fully sub-
merged test condition which outperforms those developed by
Guthrie et al. [36] with air entrainment. In addition, research has
shown that incorporation of appropriate amount of fiber reinforce-
ment could further improve the FT durability of pervious concrete
[37].
5. Conclusions
Based on the experimental study and the parameters investi-
gated in this research, the following conclusions can be drawn:
1. Use of optimized ultra-high performance matrix (UHPM) along
with balanced aggregate to binder ratio (A/B) and tailored
aggregate size could potentially advance and broaden the appli-
cation of pervious concrete without sacrificing its hydraulic
conductivity, leading to high performance pervious concrete
(HPPC).
2. HPPC shows higher modulus of elasticity, higher energy absorp-
tion capacity and increased linearity behavior under compres-
sion in comparison to conventional pervious concrete (PC).
3. The relationship between elastic modulus and square root of
compressive strength of HPPC and PC is similar to impervious
concrete.
4. Pervious concrete with a compressive strength exceeding
50 MPa, hydraulic conductivity in excess of 1 mm/s and accept-
able FT durability can be achieved when properly designed.
5. HPPC possesses significantly better FT durability than conven-
tional pervious concrete. It is able to survive 300 accelerated F
T cycles and thus shows the potential to be used under aggres-
sive environment such as northern areas where cyclic freezing
and thawing is not uncommon.
6. The FT durability of HPPC can be explained by (1) denser
matrix microstructure, and (2) lower amount of freezable water
in the matrix.
Despite the advantage of improved mechanical performance
and enhanced durability properties of HPPC, further research is
needed to address concerns such as potential shrinkage cracking
and higher material cost prior to the application of this material.
Acknowledgements
This research has been supported by a fellowship from the State
Scholarship Fund of China, the China Scholarship Council (CSC),
and the University of Connecticut. The authors express their great
gratitude for the support. Special thanks are also due to L. Zhang, J.
Ren, W. Zhong and Y. Li for their valuable assistance with the scan-
ning electron microscope. Additionally, the authors would also like
to acknowledge the support from the following companies: Elkem
Materials and Lehigh White Cement Company.
59
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