UDC begins TA with RWTH Aachen on permeable pavements
On September 16, 2024, our partners at Universidade da Coruña and CITEEC have began work on their second-to-last Transnational Access, remarkably the sixth such project to be hosted at their research infrastructure!
Reginald Alvarado Vicencio, a doctoral researcher at RWTH Aachen University, will stay in Coruña until mid-November for an experimental campaign on the “Hydraulic Characterization of Permeable Pavement Bonded with a Novel Polyurethane Binder” in the STREET rain-simulator facility of CITEEC.
Widespread implementation of permeable pavements in cities has often been hindered because they are not able to withstand heavy traffic, such as buses and/or trucks, or the braking or acceleration of vehicles (e.g., at traffic lights). This has kept permeable pavements relegated, so far, mostly to parking lots or low-traffic areas. Our TA is working on the creation of a new type of permeable pavement: their mechanical test showed improved performance against the one made with bitumen (asphalt), but their hydraulic properties and their interaction with pollutants remain to be researched.
Work from this Access will reveal whether this permeable pavement can help us absorb stormwater and also whether it can stop pollutants carried by stormwater runoff — a very significant contribution to current research with very tangible potential in the industry.
Two more user-group members, Maximilian Born from RWTH and Daniela Schmitz from PIA GmbH, will wisit the installation too in mid-October. The whole team is already in talks with staff at UDC to set up a timeline for several scientific publications and dissemination activities based on the results of the TA.