Dissertation
Numerical Modeling of Pervious Concrete for Optimizing Mixture Design and Pavement Thickness
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2020
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/111780
Abstract
Pervious concrete is a stormwater management practice with the benefits of controlling urban flooding and filtering some pollutants carried by surface runoff. However, many pervious concrete pavements fail prematurely due to inadequate thickness design to withstand the traffic loads and/or improper mixture design that leads to degraded mechanical properties, durability, permeability, and short service life. The durability and permeability issues could be addressed with a hydro-mechanical approach that balances the two performances. The structural shortcomings could be addressed with a mechanistic thickness design methodology that incorporates the fatigue life of pervious concrete, and the effect of temperature-induced stresses. The objective of this dissertation is to advance the mixture design and layer thickness design of pervious concrete by numerical modeling. The discrete element method (DEM) is used to model pervious concrete as a sphere packing bonded together by a cohesive contact model. The bond between the spheres is calibrated to reflect the effect of water-to-cement (w/c) ratio on the mechanical response of pervious concrete to uniaxial compressive loading. Then, a pore-scale finite volume model is used to simulate water flow through the DEM sphere packings and estimate the hydraulic conductivity based on the packing porosity. The hydro-mechanical approach is used to optimize the mixture composition of pervious concrete to achieve the desired compressive strength and hydraulic conductivity for varied porosity, w/c ratio, and aggregate gradation. \nThe thickness design of pervious concrete is dependent on the estimated fatigue life. Therefore, a flexural fatigue model is developed for pervious concrete based on cyclic testing. To quantify the stresses in pervious concrete slabs under various wheel loads and temperature-induced stresses, a finite element method (FEM)-based model is used. Using the FEM-based model and the developed fatigue model, a thickness design table for pervious concrete pavements with different material properties and under various traffic loads is developed.\nThe outcomes of this dissertation can be used to guide the optimization of mixture composition and pavement thickness of pervious concrete for improved and sustained drainage and mechanical performance for the required service life.
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Details
- Title
- Numerical Modeling of Pervious Concrete for Optimizing Mixture Design and Pavement Thickness
- Creators
- Othman AlShareedah
- Contributors
- Somayeh Nassiri (Advisor)Balasingam Muhunthan (Committee Member)Xianming Shi (Committee Member)Lynn Schreyer (Committee Member)Debakanta Mishra (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 216
- Identifiers
- 99900581609701842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation