A new technology for green urban construction：using sand-based concrete permeable brick to conserve rainwater in the urban area

Abstract

Rainwater management is an important solution to climate change and flood risk reduction in the urban area. This study presents a nature-based solution to conserve rainwater in the urban area: a kind of permeable brick made of desert sand, of which compressive strength is intensive, water permeability is high, and fabrication cost is low. The desert-sand bricks presented here will be more in line with both the environmental and economic aims of developing countries. The compressive strength is one of the most important factors that impact the service life of permeable bricks, while the fabrication cost is one of the key reasons influencing the market share of permeable bricks. In this study, the minimum compressive strength of the desert-sand brick is 34.9 Mpa, which has exceeded the requirements of the standard JC/T 945-2005. Moreover, the mean and maximum compressive strengths of the desert-sand bricks are 69.6 and 102.8 Mpa, which are 2.3 and 3.4 times of the strength required by the standard JC/T 945-2005, respectively. The fabrication cost of the water-permeable brick designed by the authors is only 12 US dollars/m², which is much lower than that of the sand-based permeable bricks that already exist in the market. Additionally, more ecological benefits could be gotten because the main aggregate in the sand-based permeable bricks is the desert sand rather than river sand. The results show that the kind of permeable brick can render substantial economic benefits and ecological improvements.

Keywords: Urban area; Water conservation; Permeable brick; Desert sand