Experimental investigation on the effect of pore characteristics on clogging risk of pervious concrete based on CT scanning.

• Used CT scanning and image processing technique to investigate pervious concrete. • Investigated the characteristics and calculated the equivalent diameter of pores. • Investigated the influence of the size of clogging particle and pores on clogging. • Optimized the design of pervious concrete to avoid clogging. Pervious concrete is one of the permeable pavement materials, which can improve the traffic safety and road environment. However, the clogging problem of pervious concrete is considered as a potential common deficient of the permeable pavement that causes severe loss of the ecological function. Generally, the main cause of clogging is the interlocking of the pores with clogging particles. Therefore, addressing the problem of clogging needs to explore the influence of pore characteristics and clogging particles on the pervious concrete. This study determined the equivalent diameter of pores through CT scanning and image processing using an algorithm code to calculate the geometry properties of the open and closed pores. Moreover, the variation of permeability after clogging has been analyzed. The experimental results showed that the pore size could determine whether clogging particles can block or pass through the pores or not, which is closely related to the clogging degree. Finally, the new findings can help engineers and designers to optimize the design of pervious concrete to forwardly avoid or mitigate the clogging problem, which has a promising realistic signification for permeable pavement design and maintenance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]