Development of Permeable Concrete Abroad
Release Time:
2016-03-02
Source:
Development of Permeable Concrete Abroad
Pervious concrete, also known as porous concrete, has been studied and developed relatively early in several developed countries, including Europe, the United States, and Japan. These materials have been applied to plazas, pedestrian streets, roadside and median strip pavements, park pathways, and parking areas, thereby increasing urban permeable and breathable spaces and delivering excellent results. For example, Wolfram Schluter and Chris Jefferies at Abertay University in Dundee, Scotland, conducted research on the permeability and drainage performance of concrete. They paved a plaza in central Scotland with pervious concrete for the Royal Bank, and the results demonstrated that this material provides outstanding drainage during rainy weather. In the United States, pervious concrete typically contains no fine aggregate and is referred to as lean-aggregate concrete. In Florida, New Mexico, and Utah, lean-aggregate concrete has been used as a pavement surface layer in parking areas, and many states have enacted regulations and carried out trials to install a pervious cement-concrete base beneath the pavement surface to facilitate rapid drainage. In France, pervious concrete is extensively used in the construction of tennis courts, with 60% of all tennis courts built using this material. In addition, pervious concrete is employed in vegetated slope protection zones, helping to create favorable ecological environments along riverbanks. In Japan, Motoharu Tamai, Torahisa Okamoto, and other researchers have conducted systematic studies on cement-based pervious concrete and applied it in practical projects such as park roads and plazas, with typical thicknesses ranging from 70 to 200 mm, water-to-cement ratios around 0.35, and coarse aggregates sized 5–13 mm or 2.5–7 mm. This approach provides pedestrians with a comfortable and engaging road environment for recreation and strolling.
China’s research on permeable concrete started relatively late and remains in the early stages of development. In 1995, the China Academy of Building Research took the lead in domestically developing permeable concrete and achieved certain results. Using the same raw materials as ordinary concrete and employing predominantly compaction molding, the compressive strength of the formulated permeable concrete typically reaches about 20 MPa. In 2000, Yang Jing and Jiang Guoliang from the Department of Civil Engineering at Tsinghua University adopted the addition of silica fume, which increased the compressive strength of permeable concrete to 35.5 MPa while achieving a permeability coefficient of 2.9 mm/s, marking a breakthrough. Overall, the current market for permeable concrete in China is highly fragmented and uneven in quality, and there is still no consensus on its permeability and vegetative performance. Widespread acceptance and broader application of this material will require substantial further work, including the selection of high-quality materials and the engagement of professional construction teams.
