Impact of deicing salts on pervious concrete pavement

Abstract

Two pervious concrete projects (named as SR28 and SR431), with the same mixture design but different winter maintenance activities, were included in this research. Both projects are located in the Lake Tahoe area, Nevada, United States. Testing results indicated that the mechanical properties were significantly higher in SR28 cored samples than the ones in SR431. It was found that the SR28 pieces have fewer air voids, while the SR431 samples have higher water absorption and hydraulic conductivity, and the SR28 samples show fare better performance against repeated freezing and thawing cycles than the SR431 ones. scanning electron microscope pictures of crack surfaces in cores taken from SR28 indicate that the cement binder phase has been largely retained. However, in the coring sample of SR431, needle-shaped residues can be seen within the cement binder phase and an abundance of precipitated micro-sized crystalized particles can be observed. On a micrometer scale, the μCT examination reveals that the porosity of SR28 samples is significantly less than that of SR431. The analyzing results give a clue to demonstrate the durability of pervious concrete pavement can be attributed to the construction quality control, maintenance activity, or the weather and locations of the field sites.