Pervious concrete is considered to be an advanced pavement material in terms of the environmental benefits arising from its basic feature-high water-permeability. This paper presents the results of experimental work that is aimed at testing technically important properties of pervious concrete prepared with three different water-to-cement ratios. The following properties of pervious concrete were tested-compressive and splitting tensile strength, unit weight at dry conditions, void content, and permeability. The mix proportions were expected to have the same volume of cement paste, and, to obtain the same 20% void content for all of the samples. The results show that changes of water-to-cement ratio from 0.35 to 0.25 caused only slight differences in strength characteristics. Arising tendency was found in the case of compressive strength and a decreasing tendency in the case of splitting tensile strength. The hydraulic conductivity ranged from 10.2 mm/s to 7.5 mm/s. The values of both the unit weight and void content were also analysed to compare the theoretical (calculated) values and real experiment results. A fairly good agreement was reached in the case of mixtures with 0.35 and 0.30 water-to-cement ratios, while minor differences were found in the case of 0.25 ratio. Finally, a very tight correlation was found between void content, hydraulic conductivity, and compressive strength.

The paper is dedicated to the verification of solidification of continuously cast round steel billets using numerical modelling based on the finite element method. The aim of numerical modelling is to optimize the production of continuously cast steel billets of round format. The paper describes the pre-processing, processing and post-processing phases of numerical modelling. Also, the problems with determination of the thermodynamic properties of materials and the heat transfer between the individual parts of the casting system, including the definition of the heat losses along the casting strand in the primary and secondary cooling, were discussed. The first results of numerical simulation show the so-called thermal steady state of continuous casting. The temperature field, the metallurgical length and the thickness of the shell at the end of the mould were predicted. The further research will be concentrated on the prediction the risk of the cracks and the porosity based on the different boundary conditions.

Pervious concrete is characterized by its open-void structure, which gives it a number of specific properties and allows specific applications, including pervious pavements, residential roads, alleys, sidewalks, parking lots, patios, and so on. Permeable areas are extremely important for the creation of sustainable cities in terms of the water cycle. Due to its high void content and low cement/mortar content, pervious concrete generally may have significantly reduced strength when compared with conventional concrete. That is why a wide range of research activities is devoted to the balance between acceptable void content, strength, as well as other significant properties. Knowledge of the relationships between the individual properties is very important for understanding this specific material. In this paper, a wide range of 38 different composition variants has been tested to determine the dependencies between the essential properties of pervious concrete. The variables related to the type of aggregate, maximum grain size, the grain-size composition, the amount of binder, and the kind (composition) of binder. The dependencies reported in the article are defined with high reliability R2 ranging from 0.75 to 0.95. On the basis of the dependencies thus determined, it can be predicted that a density of min. 1740 kg/m3 must be reached to meet the requirement of min. 10 MPa for nonpavement applications, while a density of min. 1960 kg/m3 must be achieved to meet min. 20 MPa for pavement applications. The criteria of the void ratio for pavement applications can be set at 20 ± 3%, while the criteria for nonpavement applications can be set at 28 ± 6%.

No abstract

This study is aimed at the utilization of natural zeolite as a prospective type of Supplementary Cementitious Material in connection with the innovations of construction solutions through the materials. The influence of zeolite on several properties of cement-based composites is studied. Basic characteristics of input powdery materials as well as the technological parameters of zeolite tested on mortar containing 50% of cement replacement are presented. The technical parameters of concrete containing 8, 13, and 25% of cement replacement by zeolite are presented as well. The paper is valuable due to the three-year testing period. The density of the hardened concrete was found to be decreasing with increasing zeolite content. While no significant differences in compressive strength were found after 28 days, differences between individual samples were clear after the long-term period. The presence of zeolite influenced the compressive strength positively in the case of the 8% and 13% replacement, while the higher proportion of natural zeolite (25%) caused lower compressive strength after 28 days but was similar to the reference concrete after three years. A major increase in strength was detected for all samples in the long-term period. It confirms the long-term potential of zeolite for strength improvement.