Thesis
Preliminary analysis of summertime heat storage in traditional versus pervious concrete systems
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
2011
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/101731
Abstract
The urban heat island effect, where air temperatures are significantly higher in more developed areas than those of the surrounding countryside due to solar radiation retained in materials such as pavements, has increasingly become a concern during hot weather due to its negative impact on human health as well as human comfort and the natural environment. Currently one method of measuring how "cool" (helpful in mitigating urban heat island) a pavement may be is its solar reflectance index (SRI). LEED counts any pavement with an SRI greater than 29 as a "cool" surface. Many concrete pavements have an SRI greater than 29, but pervious concrete pavements typically do not because their rough surface does not reflect light as well. The hypothesis presented in this thesis is that pervious concrete has other beneficial properties, particularly its extensive void structure which may serve to insulate the ground from heat transfer thus also helping to mitigate the urban heat island effect. This thesis examines temperature data collected during the summer of 2007 from a side by side pervious concrete and traditional concrete pavement systems at a parking lot site in Iowa with respect to potential mitigation of the urban heat island effect. The pervious concrete at the site only had an SRI of 14 while the traditional concrete had an SRI of 37. The research done for this thesis shows that despite the low SRI the pervious concrete performed just as well as the traditional concrete in terms of urban heat island mitigation under dry conditions, and therefore could also be counted as a "cool" material. Additional benefits with the pervious concrete system from rainfall events were also noted. These are thought to be from evaporative cooling.
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Details
- Title
- Preliminary analysis of summertime heat storage in traditional versus pervious concrete systems
- Creators
- Michelle Anne Boyer
- Contributors
- Liv Haselbach (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525044501842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis