Abstract
Widespread adoption and acceptance of pervious concrete systems are dependent on determining the in situ properties of the placement. The porosity of the pervious concrete layer is the dominant variable of the system, affecting durability, hydraulic, and mechanical properties. Current practice has the porosity of the system estimated prior to placement by a fresh concrete density test on the mix from the concrete mixer, and tested after placement by extracting cores and performing a hardened porosity test. This study provides a method for correlating the surface infiltration rate of a newly placed pervious concrete layer and its estimated porosity with simple linear equations. Although not intended to replace standardized acceptance porosity tests, using this existing nondestructive infiltration method for also estimating porosity may readily provide more information on the variable characteristics of an entire pervious concrete slab for correlation to additional studies, performance, and evaluation of installation techniques. The findings also indicate that the standard 300-mm-diameter single-ring surface infiltration test would have similar results to a more involved double-ring imbedded infiltration test. Finally, the research provides information on interpreting the relationship of laboratory measured infiltration rates for single-lift versus double-lift compaction methods, and shows that coring may have impacts on the surface infiltration rate performed on the extracted cores, probably because of coring debris clogging some of the pores.
