CONCRETO & Construções | 67
applications, but before this happens,
the bond and development of steel re-
inforcement to pervious concrete needs
to be studied, tested, and quantified to
assure adequate performance of struc-
tural members. The fatigue behavior of
pervious concrete in non-pavement ap-
plications would need to be studied as
pervious concrete is expanded to struc-
tural works. Further, analysis of pervious
concrete with respect to other material
properties, including creep, shrinkage,
and modulus of elasticity, would also be
needed. Existing structures would need
to be studied to understand what was
done right in design and construction.
We can look to the structural engineers
to tell us what else we need to know
before they can comfortably design per-
vious concrete structures. Lastly, how-
ever, the industry would need to develop
compaction techniques to develop the
uniform, optimum compaction required
to develop the strength needed to pro-
tect life and property.
Research has shown that the fa-
tigue behavior of pervious concrete
in pavement applications is similar to
that of plain concrete pavements [Ta-
mai 2004]. If raveling didn’t exist, the
design tools for plain concrete would
work well for pervious concrete. The
author has witnessed both, pave-
ments that crack and fail structurally
before raveling (Figure 3), and pave-
ments that ravel before cracking; with
the latter being the more commonly
seen failure. So, we know that pave-
ments can be designed and built to
withstand raveling, but we don’t have
the tools to do so today. Once we
have a good field test for measur-
ing raveling resistance, then we can
better understand how raw material
characteristics and construction tech-
niques impact this critical property of
the material.
Conventional test methods to
measure the strength, either com-
pressive or flexural, of pervious con-
crete have proved to be unreliable as
the results are erratic. When casting
test specimens, it is critical to apply
consistent compaction to samples,
between labs and operators, to get
consistent compaction and consistent
results. The ASTM subcommittee
has examined a number of compac-
tion techniques and specimen sizes,
shapes, and loading schemes, but
has not yet identified a good, repro-
ducible combination of these. Final-
izing standardized strength testing is
a critical step to enabling engineers to
analyze and design pervious concrete
from a structural perspective for both
pavements and vertical applications.
6. CONCLUSION
Looking at the future of the indus-
try, from a testing perspective, there
is still work to do to help advance
this technology. We need research-
ers’ help to develop standardized test
methods for flexural strength, raveling
resistance in the field, and permeabil-
ity in the lab. Once we have these
test methods, producers will better be
able to select raw materials based on
these properties that will benefit the
drainage properties and pavement
structural designs.
Considering vertical structural ap-
plications, the market will decide if
there is value in conducting the vast
amount of research necessary to use
pervious concrete for walls for build-
ings, earth retaining walls, sound
walls, or any other applications the
designers can dream up.
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