Development of Test Equipment for Evaluating Hydraulic Conductivity of Permeable Block Pavements

Abstract

The use of permeable block pavement has been acknowledged as one of the promising Low Impact Development (LID) strategies to mitigate the harmful effects of depletion of natural surfaces, due to the uncontrollable development of infrastructure and buildings. Numerous studies, associated with drainage properties and long-term performance of this traditional pavement alternative, have been conducted in the past 30 years. Nevertheless, standardized equipment and methodologies are still limited, specifically for small-scale laboratory models. This paper suggests equipment that is capable of evaluating the hydraulic performance of permeable pavement materials in a laboratory set-up, by monitoring permeability and simulating the physical clogging process. Constant head permeability tests with systematic application of fine clogging particles were conducted on three identical permeable block systems (PBS), composed of four stone pavers. Each test system received an equivalent amount of eight years’ particle loading of silica sand, with different size distributions. The experimental results revealed that all the models showed permeability degradation trends similar to those presented in other literature.