Permeable Polymer Concrete
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.
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.
Technology validated in lab.
Basic technological components are integrated to establish that they will work together. This is relatively “low fidelity” compared with the eventual system. Examples include integration of “ad hoc” hardware in the laboratory.
Basic technological components are integrated to establish that they will work together. This is relatively “low fidelity” compared with the eventual system. Examples include integration of “ad hoc” hardware in the laboratory.
Several specimens of PPC with different mix designs were produced at Epoka University Civil Engineering Laboratory. It was observed that resin hardens in a couple of hours, nevertheless the samples were left in the molds for 3 days. After three days they were removed from the molds and analyzed. The sample was kept under flowing water for several minutes and it was observed that flowing water passed through PPC samples without almost no resistance. The properties of the binding material such as compressive and flexural strength, wet-dry cycle resistance and resistance to high temperatures were investigated in one of our previous studies on small scale specimens. The preliminary investigations provided very important information about the capabilities of this innovative material, showing that PPC could be a very good solution for flash flood with its high permeability and drainage capacity.
How does it work?
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.
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