Suitability of pervious geo-polymer concrete containing fly ash as road shoulder: A pilot study

• Main Authors: Patel, Jagannath, Bera, Dillip Kumar, Rath, Ashoke Kumar, Acharya, Prasanna Kumar
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon dioxide; Cement; Compacting; Compressive strength; Concrete pavements; Flexural strength; Fly ash; Hammers; Laboratories; Laboratory tests; Natural resources; Polymer concretes; Polymers; Road shoulders; Storm runoff; Stormwater; Stormwater management; Subgrades; Traffic volume; Urban areas; Urbanization; Water table
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0125976

Rapid urbanization and modern construction approach create an impervious island in urban and semi-urban areas, which leads to make a situation of artificial flooding. The major reason for making impervious islands is due to the use of cement-based concrete pavement in and around the urban areas. As a result, stormwater runoff is promptly collected and discharged to various receiving main drains, rivers, and, eventually, the sea. This leads to decrease infiltration and depletes the water table. To overcome these problems, pervious concrete is very essential to be laid down in the parking areas, low volume road pavement, sidewalks, driveways, tennis courts etc. in place of normal cement concrete. Normal porous concrete is a special type of cement concrete with high porosity, allowing water to percolate into the sub-grade. But cement is said to be the most unsustainable material requiring huge energy, emitting huge carbon dioxide and consuming huge natural resources during its production. On the other hand, alkali-activated alumina-silica rich waste material made geo-polymer concrete is said to be a sustainable alternative to cement concrete. This paper reports on the preparation and properties of an eco-friendly geo-polymer self-compacting pervious concrete mix using fly ash under the sun curing. Various laboratory tests like compressive strength, flexural strength and permeability of prepared geo-polymer concrete were taken up. The laboratory results of sun-cured geo-polymer concrete were compared to water-cured normal concrete and found more or less nearer to each other. To establish the structural performance of prepared geo-polymer pervious concrete, a pilot study was taken up using the prepared material as shoulder material. Rebound hammer tests were conducted at the field and compared to laboratory results and found consistent. The compressive strength obtained was found more than 15 MPa for which it can be used also used for applications with low traffic volume. The location of the pilot project: Lat 20°21'10.58"N, Long: 85°54'54.78"E village-Aradiapada, Cuttack Odisha India.