INVESTIGATION ON HYDROLOGIC PERFORMANCE OF PERVIOUS CONCRETE PAVEMENT BY FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

Abstract

Pervious concrete pavement has been used widely as an effective practice for water management in low-impact development techniques. The hydrologic performance of pervious concrete pavement depends significantly on the rainfall intensity and the designed slope. This study assessed the hydrologic performance of pervious concrete pavement by evaluating the time for surface ponding via finite element analysis. A series of simulations were carried out to explore the relationship between hydrologic performance and pervious concrete pavement by the Hydrus 2D program. The research’s results showed that as the slope increased, the time of surface ponding also increased. The data indicated that the slope variable had a low impact on the water level in pervious concrete pavement under a constant rainfall intensity. Observation of the effect of rainfall intensity showed that when the rainfall intensity increased twofold, the time for surface ponding dropped about two times. Furthermore, when surface ponding appeared, pervious concrete pavement at higher rainfall intensity had lower water content. The rainfall intensity also significantly affects the hydrologic performance of the pervious concrete pavement. This study only assessed the hydrologic performance by using the time for surface ponding via finite element analysis. Further experimental studies should be conducted to examine the relationship of other factors to the hydrologic performance of pervious concrete pavement.

Keywords

• finite element analysis
• hydrologic performance
• pervious concrete pavement