IMPROVEMENT OF GROUND WATER LEVEL BY POROUS CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION

Porous concrete permits water runoff to percolate through it rather than flood surrounding areas. It is usually a mixture of 10 mm to 20 mm average diameter aggregate, hydraulic cement, other cementitious materials, admixtures and water. When properly placed, pervious slabs will contain voids that would look like a honeycomb and these voids are held together with cement. This work investigates the feasibility of reducing the volume of fine aggregate in cement concrete mix and adding extra course aggregate. Porous concrete helping to increasing ground water level by allow water on surface and reducing runoff water during rainy seasons. River sand conforming to IS code 383-1970 collected from nearby quarry is used as fine aggregate, cement used for this work is Portland pozzalona cement and coarse aggregates used are of 20mm and 10mm grain sizes. In the present study, replacing of sand at a percentage of 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% with aggregate was attempted. Both 10 mm and 20 mm aggregates were used separately. The mix design was carried out as per IS code. Concrete specimens are cast, cured and tested for 7, 14, 28 days compressive strength. Both cube and cylindrical compression tests were conducted. Cube moulds of dimension 150 x 150 x 150 mm and cylinder mould of dimension 150 mm diameter and 300 mm height were used. The observations arrived from the present study are compressive strength of porous concrete is less than the ordinary concrete, 90% of required compressive strength attained within 7 days, concrete surface appear clearly outside as coarse aggregate present out at the surface. It is found that Porous concrete construction is technically variable and feasible. It is also found from preparation usage that Pervious Concrete requires less maintenance. resists moving under braking vehicles passes more water through to the sub soil, less apt to crack or separate, more effective at handling oil and grease, takes less time to install and has lower life-cycle cost.