Investigation of the Effect of Compression Force on the Tensile Strength and Infiltration Rate of Pervious Concrete Blocks

Pervious concrete is widely used as a paving material. Pervious pavement is generally constructed by pouring fresh pervious concrete and compacting. However, it has some difficulties such as finishing and curing. In addition, the road has to be closed, until the pervious concrete gains enough strength. Pervious concrete block is a new material that can overcome these difficulties. In this study, the effect of compression force on the strength and infiltration rate of pervious concrete blocks has been investigated. The compaction process was different from traditional methods in this study, and was applied according to predesignated compression forces on fresh pervious concrete mixtures sensitively. Within the scope of the study, 36 different mixtures were produced by applying four different compression forces (25, 50, 75, and 100 kN) in three different sample thicknesses (60, 80, and 100 mm) with three different aggregate sizes (2–4, 4–8, and 8–16 mm). As a result, it was found that while the increase in the compression force increases the splitting tensile strength of pervious concrete blocks with 2–4 and 4–8 mm aggregate, it causes a decrease in the strength due to the aggregate crushing phenomenon in mixtures with 8–16 mm aggregate, 6 cm thick samples. In this study, it was seen that the expectation that the increase in compaction would always cause an increase in strength is not valid, contrary to the literature. The infiltration rate decreased as the compression force increased, as expected. It was determined that the new infiltration rate measurement method has been found effective. Considering the strength requirement in the TS 2824 EN 1338 standard, pervious concrete blocks produced with 4–8 mm aggregate, compressed with 75 kN force and having 80 mm thickness have been determined as the optimum block type.