Experimental Study on Water Percolating Concrete

Abstract

This paper addresses two aspects namely a new method for manufacturing of percolating concrete blocks using different proportions of concrete mixture such as Portland cement, Coarse aggregates, fine aggregates, limestone, and water have been designed. Apart from this an attempt has also been made by adding small quantities of additives such as fly ash, rice husk ash etc. for its strength and suitability on par with the normal Concrete blocks. Another is a partial replacement of cement with supplementary cementation materials such as fly ash and metakaolin in different proportions for reducing high grade cement consumptions been proposed. The design of a Pervious Concrete is made in such a way that it allows the entire surface run off water to percolate down without retaining any drop/quantity in it. Thus, it is named as water percolating Pervious Concrete/ porous concrete. An alternative for reducing cement usage in concrete makes concrete eco-friendly. Thus, there comes an idea of partially replacing cement with supplementary cementations materials, The concern has been growing in recent years towards reducing the pollutants in water conservation and the environment. The continual urbanization has led to the increase in impervious surface area of the cities, further leading to blockage in percolation of precipitation from rainfall. This result is excess surface run off. To counteract this, pervious concrete is the solution. Hence, the pervious concrete having 15% to 35% interconnected pores by volume, allows direct infiltration of water through its structure. Since the strength of this block for highway suitability of roads is not yet tested. The main aim of this paper is to improve the strength characteristics of porous concrete. However, on comparison, with the published data it is suitable for foot paths/ pathways and parking lots and as driveways in the residential and small rural areas where less vehicular traffic. This will help in reducing the risk of water clogging and recharges the nearby ground water level. The Maintenance of the slab is also minimum and can be repaired and cleaned easily. Thus, it is worthy and useful in many ways