Infiltration Behaviour of Polymer-Modified Porous Concrete and Porous Asphalt Surfaces Used in SuDS Techniques

Abstract

Permeable pavements are one of the world’s most widely applied techniques for source control in sustainable drainage systems. Porous concrete (PC) and porous asphalt (PA) are two of the most studied surfaces in terms of runoff reduction. Nevertheless, previous research has highlighted a lack of a comprehensive laboratory methodology for the analysis of the topographical variables, runoff surface length (RSL) and surface slope (SS), and their impact on the infiltration behaviour of these porous surfaces. This research paper analyses the infiltration performance of polymer-modified PC and PA-16 for 0, 3, 5, 7 and 10% slope on newly built and clogged surfaces, using an improved version of the Cantabrian fixed (CF) infiltrometer and LCS permeameter, enabling comparison of the infiltration behaviour. This laboratory methodology has proved to be well suited to the study of the infiltration behaviour of porous surfaces and also to the quantification of their infiltration capacity reduction due to clogging. As main results, this paper presents regression models with high R2 obtained with a confidence level of 95%, based on RSL and SS variables, corresponding to each porous surface and clogging level.