Proceedings of the 39th IAHR World Congress
19–24 June 2022, Granada, Spain
doi://10.3850/IAHR-39WC2521716X2022251
Permeable pavement clogging laboratory experiments using rainfall simulators
Angélica Goya, Juan Naves, Jose Anta, Joaquín Suárez, Raquel Viturro and Alfredo Jácome
Universidade da Coruña, Water and Environmental Engineering Group (GEAMA), A Coruña, Spain)
angelica.goya@udc.es, juan.naves@udc.es, jose.anta@udc.es, joaquin.suarez@udc.es, raquel.viturro@udc.es, alfredo.jacome@udc.es
Abstract
Sustainable urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) are becoming a common solution to address the increase in
flow discharges, runoff volumes and pollutants concentrations caused by urban expansion. Among them, the
use of permeable pavements is nowadays widespread due to their demonstrated effectiveness in managing
and treating stormwater. However, there is great uncertainty in how the clogging of permeable pavements
affects their long-term performance in terms of permeability reduction and pollution removal efficiency.
Therefore, this study focused first in assessing the influence of clogging on the rainfall drained through porous
asphalt slabs of 0.4 m x 0.4 m x 0.15 m. The hydrology behavior and removal efficiency of the asphalt were
analyzed for different scenarios and grades of clogging by adding surface sediment loads between simulated
rain events. In addition, a porous layer of the asphalt analyzed was used for the retrofitting of an impermeable
concrete surface of a 36 m2 full-scale street section physical model that uses the same system to simulate
rain. The objective is to analyze the impact of the porous asphalt layer on the hydrology and the mobilization
of pollutants under full-scale and laboratory-controlled conditions, and to compare with previous tests
developed using a conventional impervious concrete pavement.
Keywords: Urban drainage; SuDS; Permeable pavement; Clogging; Rainfall simulator
1. INTRODUCTION
Sustainable urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) are becoming a common solution to address the increase
in flow discharges and runoff volumes caused by urban growth. Among them, the use of permeable
pavements is nowadays widespread due to their demonstrated effectiveness in managing and treating
stormwater. However, there is great uncertainty in how the clogging of permeable pavements affects their
long-term performance in terms of permeability reduction and pollution removal efficiency.
The installation of permeable pavements in an urban environment involves the reception of dust and dirt
coming from different sources as atmospheric deposition, organic materials, runoff, and degradation of the
filter media materials themselves, in addition to other inputs. This dust and dirt, consisting of materials of
different sizes, are partially retained in the porous space. In fact, the retention of these elements is a favorable
process in terms of improving the quality of runoff water, because these particles are commonly associated
with different pollutants, some of them listed as very dangerous such as heavy metals contained in road dust
(Goya et al., 2020; Sansalone et al., 2012). However, retention also implies clogging of the permeable
pavement, caused a hydraulic constrain by limiting infiltration reducing its proven effectiveness in stormwater
management and treatment (Davies et al., 2002).
In this study, the impact of permeable pavements on the hydrology and the mobilization of pollutants is
assessed by comparing the obtained results against conventional impervious pavements. Using the physical
models available at the Center for Technological Innovation in Construction and Civil Engineering (CITEEC) of
the University of A Coruña, the hydrology behavior and removal efficiency of PA-16 asphalt slabs of 0.4 m x
0.4 m x 0.15 m were analyzed for different clogging scenarios by adding surface sediment loads between
simulated rain events using the small-scale rainfall simulator. Then, a porous layer of the same asphalt was
used for the retrofitting of an impermeable concrete surface of a 36 m
2
full-scale street section physical model
that uses the same system to simulate rain (Naves et al., 2020).
The overall objective is to analyze the impact of the porous asphalt layer on the hydrology and the
mobilization of pollutants under laboratory-controlled conditions, comparing this with previous tests developed
using a conventional impervious concrete pavement (Naves et al., 2021).
2. METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the experimental setup and procedure followed to assess the long-term clogging using
porous asphalt slabs in a small rainfall simulator is described first. Then, the retrofitting of the street section
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