REU Project

Porous pavement comes in two varieties, pervious concrete and porous asphalt, and contains enough interconnected voids (typically 15-25% by volume) to allow for the percolation of water. The application of porous pavement is beneficial both in mitigating runoff and in recharging groundwater. During the course of this REU, I will be preparing samples of pervious concrete (concrete constituents are more accessible to the project than asphalt constituents) and testing them for compressive strength and porosity. Concrete consists of cementitious material, water, and aggregate. The cementitious material can be 100% Portland cement, the industry standard, or other materials such as certain industrial by-products that react chemically in a manner similar to cement. We will be substituting ground granulated blast furnace slag and fly ash into some of the concrete mixes in an effort to reuse waste. In conventional concrete, the aggregate consists of coarse aggregate, basically gravel or pebbles, and fine aggregate, or sand. In the production of pervious concrete, the fine aggregate is left out, creating empty spaces in the final product.

Personal Information

I am originally from Virginia Beach, VA and am currently a rising senior at Dartmouth. At school, I’ve worked on applying sustainability indicators (specifically those defined by the Global Reporting Initiative) to the Dartmouth campus and have served as co-chair of one of the environmental organizations. I am also a member of the outing club. In my spare time, I enjoy backpacking, basketball, tennis, squash, pool, playing the drums, and going to the beach.