The behavior of permeable interlocking concrete pavement under different rainfall intensities and design conditions

This study investigated the behaviour of permeable interlocking concrete pavement (PICP) in terms of water infiltration volume, surface runoff volume, and load resistance, using a specific lab apparatus, designed and manufactured as a rainfall simulator. The connecting pattern of the surface blocks is a stretcher bond pattern with a joint spacing of (5 and 10 mm) between the block pavers to be filled with a small-sized open-graded aggregate to finalise the permeable surface of joints. The adopted pattern has been examined under three rainfall intensities of (20, 40, and 60 l/min), four longitudinal slopes (0, 2, 4, and 6%), and three transverse slopes (0, 2, and 4%). The results showed that at high rainfall intensities (60 l/min), high longitudinal slopes (6%), and high transverse slopes (4%), the stretcher-bonded PICP with 5 mm spacing between the blocks infiltrates less water than the one with 10 mm. Furthermore, PICP with 5 mm spacing has higher surface runoff than PICP with 10 mm spacing at high rainfall intensities (60 l/min), high longitudinal slopes (6%), and all transverse slope percentages (0, 2, and 4%). In addition, the load resistance of stretcher-bonded PICP with 5 mm spacing between the blocks is higher than that of 10 mm at all the subjected loads in the load-deflection test. Despite the shown differences between both types of PICP, they are strongly recommended as an alternative choice for ordinary dense-graded pavement.