Use of self-cleaning pervious concrete for sustainable environment

The water cycle, which is an important part of the ecological cycle, negatively affects the urban life due to the imporous structure of traditional concrete used in roads, pedestrian ways, pavements and similar transportation structures. Traditional concrete does not have voids, and it is not capable of transmitting the water puddle that occurs as a result of excessive rain to the soil. Adverse situations caused by puddles on roads, pedestrian paths and sidewalks as a result of excessive rain affects the urban life in a negative way. Additionally, this disadvantage of conventional concrete leads to negative chemical results such as bacteria formation, wear and corrosion due to air pollution that occurs in transportation structures. Air pollution is increasing in urban areas and it affects human health and also it causes damage to buildings. In this thesis, a pervious concrete mix is produced by using three different aggregate sizes. These aggregates have a tumbled and smooth geometry, which is different from the traditional type of aggregates used in pervious concrete designs. The intent of this research is to examine the effect of aggregate size and aggregate surface condition on the various properties of pervious concrete. The surface condition of the aggregates is chosen as tumbled so that the aggregates touch each other at minimum surface. It is believed that this type of aggregate will increase the number of interconnected voids which in turn increases the permeability.Various tests performed on the pervious concrete specimens showed that use of tumbled aggregates results in sufficient strength and permeability properties. Additionally, these pervious concrete samples are treated with titanium dioxide to achieve a self-cleaning concrete surface. It is concluded that titanium dioxide is also effective on pervious concrete and can be used on structures cast with pervious concrete to create self-cleaning concrete surfaces. It is concluded that use of titanium dioxide treated pervious concrete with tumbled aggregates is both strong enough and sustainable. Keywords: pervious concrete, self-cleaning, sustainability, rain harvesting, heat island effect.