Construction and Building Materials 166 (2018) 601–609

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Construction and Building Materials

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Properties of pervious concretes partially incorporating acidic pumice

as coarse aggregate
Hatice Öznur Öz
Department of Civil Engineering, Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University, Niğde, Turkey

h i g h l i g h t s

Pervious concrete with acidic pumice aggregate (PCAP) was studied.

Two concrete groups with varying cement dosage were produced.

Replacement of crushed stone with acidic pumice reduced the strength of concretes.

Resistance to water permeability, total void ratio, and surface abrasion enhanced.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Using pervious concrete (PC) as a pavement material in low-volume road applications has gained great
Received 10 October 2017 importance since its positive environmental benefits. The paper presented herein addresses the prospec-
Received in revised form 29 January 2018 tive use of acidic pumice aggregate in pervious concrete. At a constant water/cement ratio of 0.30, two
Accepted 1 February 2018
control concretes were produced with only crushed stone aggregates with cement contents of 300 and
Available online 22 February 2018
420 kg/m3, respectively. Thereafter, the acidic pumice were replaced with the crushed stone at 10%,
20%, 30%, 40% and 50%, respectively by total aggregate volume. A total of 12 pervious concretes (PC) were
Keywords:
produced and tested for the compressive, splitting tensile, and flexural strengths as well as the total void
Acidic pumice
Mechanical properties
ratio and permeability at 28 and 90 days. Additionally, the surface abrasion resistances of PCs incorporat-
Permeability ing pumice were tested at 90-day. Test results have revealed that the PCs incorporating pumice had bet-
Pervious concrete ter water permeability and surface abrasion resistance, irrespective of the replacement level. However,
Total void ratio the compressive, splitting tensile and flexural strengths of PCs decreased with increasing the replacement
level of pumice.
Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction environmental friendly material in paving applications such as

Using conventional concrete as a pavement material has caused
some problems for the management of stormwater runoff. [1].
Considering the negative impacts of the conventional concrete
pavement, pervious concrete (PC) (also called porous concrete or
enhanced porosity concrete) have reinvigorated interest in the
free-draining systems of pavements. Such concretes have a
reduced density of about 2000 kg/m3, porosity of 11 to 35%, perme-
ability of 0.2–1.2 cm/s, and a compressive strength of 3.5–28.0 MPa
[2–6]. Pervious concrete has been increasingly used due to its ben-
efit in improving water quality by removing the total suspended
solids from stormwater, decreasing the stormwater runoff, and
enhancing skid pavement resistance of during storm events by
rapid drainage of water [1,7–9]. Therefore, PC can be used as an
E-mail address: oznuroz@ohu.edu.tr
walkways, parking areas, tennis courts, slope stabilization systems,
shoulders, alleys, light traffic roads, and low-grade roads [4,10–12].
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States
has accepted the utilization of PC as one of the best management
applications in decreasing storm-water runoff even though both
the high porosity and the low strength restrict its popularity [9].
Pervious concrete consists of a mixture water, cement and
coarse aggregate, with or without a small amount of fine aggregate
[2,13]. Since pore connectivity is one of the basic parameters of PC,
compaction energy of the concrete that play a main role between
strength resistance, suitable permeability, and density of PCs
should be limited [13–16]. Considering the studies performed on
PCs it was seen that the water/cement ratio changed in the range
of 0.28 and 0.40 [4,14,17], the aggregate/cement ratio varied in
the range of 4:1 to as high as 6:1 as well as the total aggregate vol-
ume of about 50–65% [14]. The particle size of coarse aggregate

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.02.010
0950-0618/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
602 H.Öznur Öz / Construction and Building Materials 166 (2018) 601–609

appeared to be much more effective on the permeability as well as ever, there is a shortage in the literatures related to the usage of
the porosity of PC. The aggregate gradation of PC characteristically lightweight aggregate (especially acidic pumice) in the production
consists of single-sized coarse aggregates/binary mixture [14]. In of PC.
some studies summarized in Table 1, aggregate with the grain size This study covers an experimental program in which the effects
in the range of 2.36–9.5 mm have been utilized in order to improve of acidic pumice on the mechanical, durability, and permeability
the strength of PC [18–22]. However, the grain sizes of 9.5–19 mm properties of pervious concretes were investigated. For this, a total
were applied to provide sufficient voids [23]. Additionally, K. Cosic of 12 mixtures in two different groups of PC were designed to have
et al. [2] showed that the connected porosity as a main parameter cement dosages of 300 and 420 kg/m3, respectively. The control
for estimating the efficiency of PC were surprisingly influenced mixtures were made with full crushed stone aggregates while
more by the type of aggregate than its size. Furthermore, the the rest of the mixtures were generated by the crushed stone with
higher amount of small aggregate, the higher density of the con- the acidic pumice at 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% by total aggregate
crete mixtures which inturn provided the greater flexural strength. volume. The pervious concretes with and without acidic pumice
The study of Y. Zaetang et al. [8] indicated that the recycled con- were tested for the porosity, permeability, compressive, flexural
crete block aggregate and the recycled concrete aggregate and splitting tensile strengths at 28 and 90-day. Additionally, the
increased the compressive strengths of PCs except for the high abrasion resistances of PC incorporating pumice were tested at
replacement level of 100%. However, the addition of recycled con- 90-day.
crete aggregate improved the surface abrasion resistance of PC.
Moreover, M. Gesoglu et al. [11] found that the tire rubber utiliza-
2. Experimental study
tion possessed positive effect on the pervious concrete against the
abrasion so that pervious concrete with rubber had the superior
2.1. Materials
abrasion resistance. The cement content, w/c ratio, type of finish,
and curing method seemed to have marked influence on the sur-
An Ordinary Portland cement (CEM I 42,5R) with Blaine fineness
face abrasion more than on the strength [15,24]. In the literature,
of 326 m2/kg and specific gravity of 3.15 was used. Physical and
however, lightweight aggregates such as pumice and diatomite
chemical properties of the cement used in the production of pervi-
have not taken adequate attention as much as natural, crushed,
ous concrete are listed in Table 2. In this study, 10–12 mm sizes
recycle aggregates and waste rubber to be used in the production
crushed limestone and/or acidic pumice were used as the coarse
of PC.
aggregate (Fig. 1). Specific gravity of the crushed stone and the
Pumice which is used as the aggregate and/or the mineral
acidic pumice were 2.65 and 0.99, respectively. The water absorp-
admixture in the production of concrete is identified as a natural
tion of acidic pumice was measured to be 33.2% according to ASTM
pozzolanic material of volcanic origin [25,26]. It has come out
C127 [30]. Slake durability test was also conducted with respect to
because of the gas release during the solidification of lava
ASTM D4644-16 to determine the stability of pumice against frag-
[26–28]. Due to a sudden release of the gases in the structure of
mentation and weakening [31]. The test identified the slake dura-
pumice during its cool down and formation, the connectivity of
bility of acidic pumice as 98.35%.
the pore structure of pumice may range from completely closed
to completely open [27,29]. There are two types of pumice known
2.2. Concrete mixture proportioning and casting
as acidic and basic. While acidic pumice is a lightweight aggregate,
specific gravity of basic pumice is close to that of natural aggregate.
In this study, it was aimed to determine the maximum and min-
Also, basic pumice has higher rough surface when compared to the
imum cement dosage by considering the limitation for compres-
acidic pumice. Acidic pumice, which possesses a porous structure,
sive strength and water permeability coefficient as well as the
provides superior advantages of low weight, high heat and sound
aggregate/cement ratio for PCs. At first, test batches were gener-
insulation, and easy workability [27]. Total pumice reserve found
ated by using the varying amounts of cement dosage and ratio of
in Turkey forms approximately 40% of total pumice reserve located
aggregate/cement until the limiting value were reached in the
in the world (18 billion m3) [28]. However, Italy, Greece, Saudi Ara-
design of PCs incorporating acidic pumice. Then, it was decided
bia, Chile and the other world countries (i.e., USA, Spain, France,
that two groups of pervious concretes with 300 and 420 kg/m3
Equator, New Zealand, Algeria etc.) have approximately 22%, 9%,
cement dosages were designed which consisted of two control
7%, 6% and 17% of the total pumice reserves, respectively. Y. Zae-
and ten acidic pumice mixtures. In this manner, a total of 12 mix-
tang et al. [26] identified that the PC incorporating pumice and
tures were produced at a constant water/cement ratio of 0.30. The
recycled aggregate showed lower mechanical properties associated
control concretes were made of full crushed stone aggregates while
with higher thermal conductivity and water permeability than
the rest of mixtures for given cement content were generated by
those with diatomite aggregate. It can be concluded that the use
replacing the crushed stone with the acidic pumice at 10 to 50%
of materials with high porosity and low specific gravity such as
pumice in the design of PC is vital to provide sufficient drainage
conforming the purpose of PC. To the knowledge of authors, how- Table 2
Chemical compositions and physical properties of Port-
land cement.

Table 1 Chemical Analysis (%) Cement

The details of the literature studies.
CaO 62.58
References Grain size Maximum compressive SiO2 20.25
(mm) strength (MPa) Al2O3 5.31
Fe2O3 4.04
Deo and Neithalath 2.36 20–21
MgO 2.82
[20] 4.75 22–23
SO3 2.73
9.5 19–20
K20 0.92
12.5 18–19
Na2O 0.22
Huang et al. [21] 4.75 10–12 Loss of Ignition 2.96
9.5 12–14 Specific Gravity 3.15
12.5 14–16 Blaine Fineness (m2/kg) 326
 H.Öznur Öz / Construction and Building Materials 166 (2018) 601–609 603

Fig. 1. (a) Crushed limestone aggregate and (b) Acidic pumice.

Table 3 2.3.2. Density and total void ratio

Mix proportion of pervious concrete (kg/m3). ASTM C1754/C1754M-12 [36] standard was followed to deter-
Mix ID Cement Water Aggregate Acidic pumice mine the density and the total void ratio of the hardened pervious
concretes.
300PCAP0 300 90 1800 0
300PCAP10 300 90 1620 67.2
300PCAP20 300 90 1440 134.5 2.3.3. Water permeability test
300PCAP30 300 90 1260 201.7 The water permeability coefficient of PC was identified accord-
300PCAP40 300 90 1080 269.0
300PCAP50 300 90 900 336.2
ing to the ASTM D2434-68 [37] conforming the falling head
420PCAP0 420 126 1680 0 method. For each specimen, four readings were recorded and then
420PCAP10 420 126 1512 62.8 average of them was calculated. Finally, the permeability coeffi-
420PCAP20 420 126 1344 125.5 cients (k) of the pervious concretes which have followed Darcy’s
420PCAP30 420 126 1176 188.3
law and assumed laminar flow were evaluated by the following
420PCAP40 420 126 1008 251.1
420PCAP50 420 126 840 313.8 expression:
 
aL h1
k¼ ln ð1Þ
At h2
by total aggregate volume with 10% increments. Thus, concrete
where k is the coefficient of permeability (cm/s), a is the cross-
mixes were scheduled within two groups of 300PCAP and 420PCAP
sectional area of the pipe (cm2), L is the length of the specimen
for 300 and 420 cement dosages, respectively. In the former the
(cm), A is the cross-sectional area of the specimen (cm2), t is the
aggregate/cement ratio was 6:1, but in the latter it was 4:1. The
time taken for the head to fall from h0 to h1 (s), h1 is the initial water
concrete mixture proportioning is listed in Table 3 in which the
head (cm) and h2 is the final water head (cm).
first three numbers designate the cement content while the last
two numbers show the replacement level of acidic pumice. The
mixture ‘‘420PCAP50”, for instance, indicates that the cement con- 2.3.4. Abrasion test
tent and the replacement level of acidic pumice aggregate being The Bohme abrasive wheel was used to determine the abrasion
420 kg/m3 and 50%, respectively. resistance of the PC as recommended in DIN52108 [38] as seen in
PCs were mixed with respect to the ASTM C192 [32] standard in Fig. 2. Firstly, the prismatic specimen with the dimensions of 70 
a power-driven revolving pan mixer. Before mixing, aggregates 70  100 mm was weighed and placed on the abrasion part on the
were immersed in water for 24 h to provide sufficient saturation wheel. At the end of each period, the abrasion face of the specimen
and then by wiping with a towel just before the mixture to obtain was rotated by 90° and the sample was exposed to six-period of
saturated surface dry condition. The mixtures listed in Table 3 abrasion. The prismatic specimen was then weighed, its sides were
were designed to have stiff consistency. The compaction was per- measured, and then the abrasion of the specimen by deep wear
formed by rodding 25 times in three layers along with applying a was calculated via the following equation:
vibration for five seconds after rodding each layer. Following the Dm
concrete casting, all molded specimens were wrapped with plastic DL ¼ ð2Þ
dR  A
sheet and left in the casting room for 24 h at 20 ± 2 °C. The speci-
mens were demolded after 24 h and kept in water for 28 and 90- where DL is the abrasive wear after 352 cycles as the mean loss in
day of curing period as per ASTM C192 [32]. specimen thickness (cm), Dm is the loss in mass after 352 cycles (g),
dR is the density of the specimen (g/cm3), and A is the area of sur-
2.3. Test specimens and methods face that exposed to abrasion (cm2).

2.3.1. Compressive, splitting tensile and flexural strengths
The compressive strength was performed on three cubes of 150
 150  150 mm dimensions according to the ASTM C 39 [33].
Three cylindrical specimens with dimensions of 100  200 mm
were used to measure the splitting tensile strength according to
the ASTM C496 [34]. Moreover, three prisms of 100x100x400
mm dimensions were tested under three-point bending according
to the ASTM C293/C293M-10 to determine the flexural strength
[35]. Test results were reckoned by averaging the results from
the three samples at each testing age of 28 and 90 days.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Compressive, splitting tensile, and flexural strengths
A noticeable negative effect of acidic pumice on the compres-
sive strength of PCs can be seen in Fig. 3, irrespective of the cement
content. The compressive strength of all concretes increased with
the testing age in the line with the literature. The maximum com-
pressive strength was measured to be 15.21 MPa for the mix
‘‘420PCAP0” whereas the lowest one was 3.85 MPa for the mix
604
300PCAP-28 Days
420PCAP- 28Days
Compressive Strength (MPa)
18
15
12
9 1
3 0.5
0% 10% 20% 30%
Volumetric Acidic Pumice Replacement
Fig. 3. Compressive strength of PCAPs.
‘‘300PCAP50”. The decrease in strength for compression seemed to
be 50.51% and 41.35% at 28 and 90-day, respectively, in the first
group of concretes. However, the second group concretes experi-
enced a strength loss of as high as 48.58% and 44.90% at 28 and
90-day, respectively, compared to the control concrete. In general,
the compressive strength of pervious concretes is related to the
aggregate strength as well as the total porosity. As a natural light-
weight aggregate, the acidic pumice is expected to have much
lower density and strength that the crushed stone. Therefore, the
compressive strength of PC reduced with the use of the acidic
pumice. The compressive strength of PCs ranges from 5 to 30
MPa or 3.5 to 28 MPa as stated in the literature [6,2] so that all
of the concretes in this study conformed the compressive strength
qualification except for the two mixes, namely 300 PCAP40 and
300PCAP50 mixture. Therefore, the most of mixtures proposed
herein can be utilized in the case of pavements that commonly
necessitate a restricted concrete compressive strength. As seen in
Fig. 3, the compressive strength increased with the cement content
at both 28 and 90-days. Similarly, Y. Zaetang et al. [26] showed that
the compressive strength of PC incorporating acidic pumice can be
improved with increasing cement content.
As observed in Fig. 4, there is a reduction in splitting tensile
strength of the both group concretes as the acidic pumice had
replaced the crushed stone. Splitting tensile strengths of the
300PCAP0 and 420PCAP0 control mixes were found to be 1.1 and
1.5 MPa, respectively, which inturn reduced to 0.69 and 0.86 MPa
H.Öznur Öz / Construction and Building Materials 166 (2018) 601–609
Fig. 2. The Bohme abrasive test device.
300PCAP-28 Days 300PCAP- 90Days
300PCAP- 90Days
420PCAP-28 Days 420PCAP-90 Days
420PCAP-90 Days
Splitting Tensile Strength (MPa)
2
1.5
40% 50% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Volumetric Acidic Pumice Replacement
Fig. 4. Splitting tensile strength of PCAPs.
for the mixes 300PCAP50 and 420PCAP50 at 28 days, respectively.
Similarly, 90-day test results revealed a strength loss of 40.84% and
38.76% for the former and the latter, respectively. The main reason
of this strength loss was attributed to the very porous structure of
the pumice by virtue of which they became quite weak as well as
to the connectivity of its pore structure ranging from completely
closed to completely open [26]. In addition, when the halved con-
cretes were visually inspected, the splitting appeared to occur
along the paste and/or through the aggregates rather than interfa-
cial transition zone (ITZ) due to the strong bond between the
cement paste and the aggregate particles [1,39,40]. The porosity
of PCs led to the initiation and propagation of the tensile cracks
offering a lower ultimate tensile strength for the hardened
composites [41]. Moreover, PCs having a cement content of 420
kg/m3 gave better results than those of PCs a 300 kg/m3 of cement
content. As seen in Fig. 4, however, the reduction in splitting
strength of the PCs was governed by the replacement ratio of
pumice. In addition, the ratio of the splitting tensile strength to
the compressive strength ranged from 11.70 to 17.92% with the
average of 14.29%. These results were nearly close to that of the
PC incorporating natural aggregate as ranging from 9 to 14% [42].
Flexural strengths of PCs at 28 and 90 days are shown graphi-
cally in Fig. 5. It was observed that the behavior of PCs in terms
of flexural strength was similar to that seen in the splitting tensile
strength such that increasing the replacement level of pumice low-
ered the flexural strength, irrespective of the testing age as well as
 H.Öznur Öz / Construction and Building Materials 166 (2018) 601–609 605

300PCAP-28 Days 300PCAP- 90Days to determine the statistical significance of the cement dosage on
420PCAP- 28Days 420PCAP-90 Days the mechanical properties at 28 days. As seen in Table 4, all of
2.5 the calculated t-value by using data obtained in this study is
Flexural Strength (MPa)

greater than that of the t table value 2.13 at a 0.05 level of signif-
icance. Therefore, using different cement dosage had marked
2
effects on the mechanical properties at 28 days.

1.5 3.2. Bulk density and total void ratio

The highest and the lowest bulk densities of 1886.62 and

1
0% 10% 20% 30%
Volumetric Acidic Pumice Replacement
Fig. 5. Flexural strength of PCAPs.
cement content. The 28-day flexural strength of the 300PCAP0 mix
was 1.72 MPa whereas that of the 420PCAP0 mix was found to be
2.17 MPa. At a given 50% replacement level of pumice, flexural
strength of the reference concretes decreased by as much as
29.65%, 22.12% at 28 days, and 28.36%, 20.48% at 90 days, respec-
tively. [11]. Again the weakness of the acidic pumice compared
to the crushed stone led to this strength loss. Another important
reason of this reduction is the increased total water content as high
water absorbent lightweight aggregate (pumice) used in the pro-
duction of such pervious concrete [43].
Moreover, a student t-test was applied to the data given in
Figs. 3–5 for the compressive, splitting tensile and flexural strength
40% 50% 1206.84 kg/m3 were measured at the mixes 420PCAP0 and
300PCAP50, respectively, so that the former density being about
70% of that of the conventional concrete [44]. As seen in Fig. 6,
increasing the replacement level of pumice made the pervious con-
cretes lighter. Owing to the less unit weight of the acidic pumice,
the PCs of as light as 33.86% were able to be achieved. Therefore,
all of the PCs incorporating acidic pumice presented herein are said
to be lightweight pervious concrete.
The total void ratio which is the rate of the volume of voids to
the total volume of the solids is presented graphically in Fig. 7.
The reduction in the bulk density resulted in slight improvement
for the total void ratio. The 300PCAP0 and 420PCAP0 mixtures have
a total void ratio of 23.2% and 19.0% at 28-day, respectively. How-
ever, PCAP50 has a total void ratio of 28.5% and 23.0% at 28-day,
respectively. Compared to the 28-day test result, the reduction in
the total void ratio was measured to be 8.19%, 6.67%, 14.74% and
7.83% for the mixes 300PCAP0, 300PCAP50, 420PCAP0 and
420PCAP50 at 90 days, respectively. PC has a more hollow

Table 4
The t-table test results of mechanical properties at 28 days.

Test type Replacement level of Cement dosage (kg/m3) Mean value n SD DF t-value
pumice (%)
Compressive strength (MPa) 0 300 7.78 3 1.40 4 6.41*
420 13.69 3 0.77
10 300 6.71 3 0.77 4 5.39*
420 11.99 3 1.51
20 300 5.89 3 1.58 4 3.55*
420 10.85 3 1.83
30 300 5.08 3 0.57 4 5.54*
420 8.65 3 0.96
40 300 4.11 3 0.72 4 4.41*
420 7.27 3 1.01
50 300 3.85 3 0.69 4 6.71*
420 7.04 3 0.45
Splitting tensile strength (MPa) 0 300 1.10 3 0.05 4 6.73*
420 1.50 3 0.09
10 300 1.01 3 0.04 4 8.13*
420 1.43 3 0.08
20 300 0.93 3 0.13 4 4.16*
420 1.31 3 0.09
30 300 0.88 3 0.17 4 3.24*
420 1.24 3 0.08
40 300 0.83 3 0.11 4 3.85*
420 1.12 3 0.07
50 300 0.69 3 0.05 4 3.42*
420 0.86 3 0.07
Flexural strength (MPa) 0 300 1.72 3 0.22 4 2.98*
420 2.17 3 0.14
10 300 1.68 3 0.25 4 2.48*
420 2.06 3 0.09
20 300 1.63 3 0.15 4 3.87*
420 2.01 3 0.08
30 300 1.49 3 0.11 4 5.728*
420 1.96 3 0.09
40 300 1.34 3 0.06 4 5.23*
420 1.80 3 0.14
50 300 1.21 3 0.12 4 2.99*
420 1.69 3 0.25

(n: number of observed data, SD: standard deviation, DF: degree of freedom).
606 H.Öznur Öz / Construction and Building Materials 166 (2018) 601–609

300PCAP 420PCAP
1900
Bulk Density ( kg/m3)

1800
1700
1600

1500
1400
1300
1200
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Volumetric Acidic Pumice Replacement Fig. 8. Relationship between compressive strength and total void ratio of PCAPs.

Fig. 6. Bulk density of PCAPs.

3.3. Water permeability

structure due to the highly porous structure of acidic pumice.
Therefore, as the acidic pumice had replaced the crushed stone
aggregate up to 50%, the total void ratio of PCs increased, irrespec-
tive of the cement content. Moreover, increase in the cement con-
tent provided the thicker paste covering the pumice so as to reduce
the total void ratio, which inturn enhanced the mechanical proper-
ties of PCs [26]. As mentioned before, because the porosity range
for PC varies between 11% and 35% [2], all of the mixtures can be
used assumed pavement material as meeting the limited total void
ratio (Fig. 7).
The relationship between the compressive strength and total
void ratio of PCAPs is plotted in Fig. 8. The empirical equation relat-
ing compressive strength (r) to the total void ratio (Vr) is
explained as:
r ¼ 79:96e0:1035Vr ; R2 ¼ 0:92
where r is the compressive strength (MPa), Vr is the total void ratio
(%) and R2 is the correlation of the results.
As shown in Fig. 8, the relatively strong relation between the
compressive strength and total void ratio of PCAPs were parallel
to a porous brittle material and normal pervious concrete as
reported by Y. Zaetang et al. [26], P. Chindaprasirt et al. [45,46],
and E. Ryshkewitch [47].
Variation in the permeability coefficient (k) of PCs in cm/s is
shown in Fig. 9. The use of acidic pumice resulted an increase in
the permeability coefficient (k) of PCs. For instance, k value of
300PCAP0 for at 28-day was 0.93 cm/s which increased to 1.05,
1.08, 1.14, 1.26, and 1.37 cm/s at the mixes 300PCAP10,
300PCAP20, 300PCAP30, 300PCAP40 and 300PCAP50, respectively.
In addition, k value of 420PCAP0 at 28-day was 0.43 cm/s which
increased to 0.49, 0.54, 0.63, 0.72 and 0.77 cm/s in the mixes
420PCAP10, 420PCAP20, 420PCAP30, 420PCAP40 and 420PCAP50,
respectively. This positive effect of acidic pumice on the permeabil-
ity is attributed to its porous structure and quite round shape via
the accelerating water passes [26]. However, the lower density of
PCs with lower cement dosage resulted in a greater amount of pore
space available for water to pass through. This would also have
contributed to the lower compressive strength [48]. In other
words, the water permeability coefficient of PCs with higher
ð3Þ cement content were clearly lower than those of low cement
dosage due to fact that the connected pores reduced with the
increased cement content [26]. Since the water permeability range
for PCs varies between 0.2 and 1.2 cm/s [2] in the literature, all of
the mixtures, but 300PCAP40 and 300PCAP50 (28-day), may be
used in paving applications such as walkways, parking areas and
tennis courts. The permeability values of PCs at 90-day for both
groups decreased with respect to the permeability values of PCs
at 28-day due to the hydration process of PCs.

300PCAP-28 Days 300PCAP- 90Days 420PCAP-28 Days 420PCAP-90 Days

30

25
Total Void Ratio (%)

20

15

10

0
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

Fig. 7. Total void ratio of PCAPs.

 H.Öznur Öz / Construction and Building Materials 166 (2018) 601–609 607

300PCAP-28 Days 300PCAP- 90Days 420PCAP-28 Days 420PCAP-90 Days

1.5

Water Permeability Cofficient (cm/s)

1.2

0.9

0.6

0.3

0
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Volumetric Acidic Pumice Replacement

Fig. 9. Water permeability coefficient of PCAPs.

The relationship between the compressive strength and water

permeability coefficient of PCAPs is presented in Fig. 10. The
empirical equation relating compressive strength (r) to the water
permeability coefficient (k) is as follows:

r ¼ 21:89e1:297k ; R2 ¼ 0:92 ð4Þ

where, r is the compressive strength (MPa), k is the water permeabil-
ity coefficient (cm/s), and R2 is correlation coefficient. As observed in
Fig. 10, the correlation coefficient 0.92 was high enough to fit a rela-
tionship between the compressive strength and the permeability.

3.4. Abrasion resistance

Fig. 10. Relationship between compressive strength and water permeability
coefficient of PCAPs. The PC pavement is required to have a rough surface to resist
sliding, skidding and breaking friction of the vehicles. Therefore,

Fig. 11. Abrasion resistance of PCAPs.

608 H.Öznur Öz / Construction and Building Materials 166 (2018) 601–609
the lower value of abrasion offers a preferable pavement concrete.
The abrasion values of PC incorporating acidic pumice at 90-day
are demonstrated in Fig. 11. Increasing the acidic pumice from
0% to 50% resulted in systematical improvement in abrasion resis-
tance for both of 300 and 420 kg/m3 cement content, respectively.
For instance, there was a reduction of abrasion depth by about 61
and 26% for the low and high cement contents, respectively, when
the acidic replacement levels hit 50%. Usage of pumice not only
reduces the unit weight but also increases the abrasion resistance
of PCs. Although pumice aggregate has lower wearing resistance by
itself than the crushed stone aggregate, PC with pumice has lower
wearing depth by the increase in pumice amount. This is due to the
surface of the pumice which has half-open texture leading to the
chemical reaction between the cement and water [8,49]. This
improvement can be also explained by the high silica content of
the pumice. Acidic pumice gains resistance against the surface
abrasion thanking to SiO2 content. Thus, the experimental results
indicated that use of acidic pumice in has a positive effect PC
against abrasion for both groups so that PC incorporating acidic
pumice has superior abrasion resistance. When the same mixtures
but the different cement contents were compared, it was seen that
the concrete having higher the cement content had the higher the
abrasion resistance. This statement was also approved by Y. Zae-
tang et al. [26] in that the increase in cement content increased
the surface abrasion resistance of PCs.
4. Conclusions
Based on the experimental results obtained from this study, the
following conclusions can be drawn:

The compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and flexu-
ral strength of PCs reduced with the use of the acidic pumice.
The weakness of acidic pumice compared to crushed stone led
to this strength loss.

The highest bulk density was measured to be 1886.62 kg/m3
which is approximately 70% of the bulk density of the conven-
tional concrete. Therefore, all of mixtures proposed herein are
said to be lightweight.

As the acidic pumice had replaced the crushed stone aggregate
up to 50%, the total void ratio of PCs increased, irrespective of
the cement content. The total void ratio of PCs produced in this
study ranges between 16.2% and 28.5%. Therefore, all of the
mixtures can be used as pavement material as meeting the lim-
iting total void ratio of 11%.

Porous structure and quite round shape of acidic pumice
increased the water permeability coefficient of PC by accelerat-
ing water ingress. Also, the lower density of PCAPs with lower
cement dosage resulted in a greater amount of pore space avail-
able for water pass.

Although pumice aggregate has lower wearing resistance by
itself than the crushed stone aggregate, PCs with pumice has
lower wearing depth by the increase in pumice amount. This
finding may be attributed to the half-open texture surface lead-
ing to the chemical reaction between the cement and water as
well as SiO2 content of acidic pumice.

Acceptable results for all PCs were obtained in terms of the
mechanical properties as well as the total void ratio, permeabil-
ity, and abrasion resistance. It may be possible to use such kind
of PCs with an environmental positive effect in walkways, park-
ing areas, tennis courts, slope stabilization systems, shoulders,
alleys, light traffic roads and low-grade roads.
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