Permeability and volumetrics of porous asphalt concrete: a theoretical and experimental investigation, Road Materials and Pavement Design

This paper deals with the theoretical and experimental analysis of percolation phenomena of water into Porous Asphalt concretes (PA). The main objects are the following: a) comparison of different indicators dealing with percolation processes; b) finding the best volumetric descriptor of percolation phenomena. The developed physical-based model is the basis for the design and analysis of experiments. A chart of equivalence for cross-referencing typical results obtained from permeability tests is proposed. Theory showed that, when managing permeability performance, effective porosity, neff, can be very important. On the other hand, goodness of fit did not provide sufficient data to clearly identify neff as a superior method/indicator. © 2007 Lavoisier, Paris.