Experimental Study of Pervious Concrete and Artificial Clogging

Pervious concrete is a form of lightweight porous concrete, obtained by eliminating or by minimizing the content of fines from the normal concrete mix. The special property of pervious concrete is ‘adequate permeability’ because of its high percentage of porosity (15–40%). However, with the passage of time, pores of pervious concrete get closed or blocked with sediments like sand, clay, or mud, etc. In the present study, to predict the life period in which the pervious concrete works with full efficiency, an artificial method, known as artificial clogging, is performed on pervious concrete to find the critical sediment and effect on the rate of infiltration. An investigation is performed on two mixes (M1 and M2) using sand, clay, and mixture of both as sediment of clog. A total of six cycles were repeated with an increment of 10 g per cycle and the infiltration rate was recorded after each cycle. It was observed that the decrease in infiltration rate was 30%, 50%, and 45% after the sixth cycle where sand, clay, and combination were used, respectively. Furthermore, compressive strength and permeability test were performed on six separate mixes of pervious concrete.