Issues
Areas
Solutions
TRL Level
SRL Level
Floods have always been a serious problem for Albania, but with the uncontrolled demographical changes during the post-communism period the cost and amount of damage has increased dramatically. Almost every year heavy rains cause floods and landslides in different regions of Albania. Tirana and Durres are from a demographical and economical point of view the two most important cities in Albania. Both have been badly affected by seasonal floods and flash floods. In the last few years some of the main urban roads of Tirana and Durres and the most important road that connects these two cities has been greatly affected by flash floods. With this innovation we are trying to find a sustainable solution to prevent or decrease the flash flooding effects in the urban and industrial areas.
Developed by Epoka University
Permeable Polymer Concrete (PPC) is a highly porous and permeable material which is mostly appropriate for pavements and roads. With its highly permeability rate it minimizes to a large extent the effect of flash floods. If designed properly it reaches very good strength values and it is resistant to abrasion, wet-dry cycles, frost, high ambient temperatures etc. We propose Permeable Polymer Concrete as a very good solution to the mitigation of flash flood problems in urban and industrial areas like Tirana and Durres.
See more information about this level and the TRL and SRL levels.
Permeable Polymer Concrete is a type of concrete obtained from mixing coarse aggregate with polymer resin. It consists of coarse aggregates of size larger than 10 mm, and resin material which creates a thin layer around the aggregates during mixing acting as a binding material to immobilize the aggregates in the aggregate matrix. Accordingly, it contains many voids, which play the major role in defining its properties. PPC is suitable for Roads, Walkways, Parking Lots, Pavements, Green Houses and precast industry. Preliminary investigations have shown that PPC can drain water with almost no resistance from the material being such a very good solution for flash flooding especially in urban and
industrial areas.
Limitations/conditions under which this innovation does not work or is less effective
As always every new material has its own advantages and disadvantages. The most important limitation of Permeable Polymer Concrete is cost. Because polymer resin is quite more expensive than cement or bitumen.
Added value
Permeable or porous paving is not totally a new thing. Porous asphalt or no fine concrete are already known materials, but both of them show several limitations. For example asphalt shows very low resistance in hot weather conditions, causing big deformations, which result in a decrease of the porosity of the material. On the other hand concrete shows other limitations such as: In order to open a concrete road or pavement to traffic we should wait until it reaches it strength, which means 7-28 days. Cement paste is not very resistant to wet-dry cycles, frost, abrasion etc. Whereas Permeable Polymer Concrete: 1. Is easily applicable on site or as precast element 2. Hardens in a couple of hours 3. The resin is impermeable and it is very resistant to wet-dry cycles or frost. 4. It show no or little decrease of strength up to at least 350 Celsius Degree. 5. Beside compression it has very good splitting and tensile strength. So from the performance point of view PPC is far more appropriate for such type of usage.
Floods have always been a serious problem for Albania, but with the uncontrolled demographical changes during the post-communism period the cost and amount of damage has increased dramatically. Almost every year heavy rains cause floods and landslides in different regions of Albania. Tirana and Durres are from a demographical and economical point of view the two most important cities in Albania. Both have been badly affected by seasonal floods and flash floods. In the last few years some of the main urban roads of Tirana and Durres and the most important road that connects these two cities has been greatly affected by flash floods. With this innovation we are trying to find a sustainable solution to prevent or decrease the flash flooding effects in the urban and industrial areas.
Developed by Epoka University
Permeable Polymer Concrete (PPC) is a highly porous and permeable material which is mostly appropriate for pavements and roads. With its highly permeability rate it minimizes to a large extent the effect of flash floods. If designed properly it reaches very good strength values and it is resistant to abrasion, wet-dry cycles, frost, high ambient temperatures etc. We propose Permeable Polymer Concrete as a very good solution to the mitigation of flash flood problems in urban and industrial areas like Tirana and Durres.
The main components of the system have been tested separately, and an initial integration exercise has been conducted.
Permeable Polymer Concrete is a type of concrete obtained from mixing coarse aggregate with polymer resin. It consists of coarse aggregates of size larger than 10 mm, and resin material which creates a thin layer around the aggregates during mixing acting as a binding material to immobilize the aggregates in the aggregate matrix. Accordingly, it contains many voids, which play the major role in defining its properties. PPC is suitable for Roads, Walkways, Parking Lots, Pavements, Green Houses and precast industry. Preliminary investigations have shown that PPC can drain water with almost no resistance from the material being such a very good solution for flash flooding especially in urban and
industrial areas.
Limitations/conditions under which this innovation does not work or is less effective
As always every new material has its own advantages and disadvantages. The most important limitation of Permeable Polymer Concrete is cost. Because polymer resin is quite more expensive than cement or bitumen.
Added value
Permeable or porous paving is not totally a new thing. Porous asphalt or no fine concrete are already known materials, but both of them show several limitations. For example asphalt shows very low resistance in hot weather conditions, causing big deformations, which result in a decrease of the porosity of the material. On the other hand concrete shows other limitations such as: In order to open a concrete road or pavement to traffic we should wait until it reaches it strength, which means 7-28 days. Cement paste is not very resistant to wet-dry cycles, frost, abrasion etc. Whereas Permeable Polymer Concrete: 1. Is easily applicable on site or as precast element 2. Hardens in a couple of hours 3. The resin is impermeable and it is very resistant to wet-dry cycles or frost. 4. It show no or little decrease of strength up to at least 350 Celsius Degree. 5. Beside compression it has very good splitting and tensile strength. So from the performance point of view PPC is far more appropriate for such type of usage.
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