Climate change resilient infrastructure for a sustainable built environment ('PermeableCity')
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Civil & Environmental Engineering
Abstract
Permeable (fast draining) infrastructure will reduce the impact from climate change and urbanisation related flooding, which has a projected annual global cost of £500bn by 2030. Flooding is expected to cost the UK economy £27bn annually by 2080, without investment in flood resilient infrastructure. Along with the 2020 government plan for green infrastructure development, it is timely to invest in flood resilient permeable infrastructure. An extreme example of flood-affected infrastructure are airport pavements, impacted by stormwater and ice/snow build-up causing aircraft skidding. Skidding accounts for nearly half of all post 1990 major global commercial air crashes. In 2017 a Heathrow snow event grounded over 50,000 passengers and required a hurried £10m purchase of de-icing equipment. The current methods for preventing ice/snow build-up damage the environment, aircraft components and runway surfaces, increasing infrastructure maintenance costs. Airport operators, seeking to address these concerns, have expressed a strong desire to use permeable concrete technology to keep infrastructure clear.
Permeable concrete pavements are one of the most promising mitigation strategies to prevent surface flooding, they rapidly drain stormwater through otherwise impermeable infrastructure. Conventional permeable pavements are, however, prone to clogging, due to debris trapped within the pore network, blocking the pavement and reducing its drainage capacity. The frequent required maintenance degrades performance and service life and is difficult to perform in an active airport. Most importantly, conventional permeable pavements have insufficient strength, making them unsuited for airports. There is an urgent need for a new system that can reliably keep airports clear of standing water and ice/snow.
I recently developed next generation clogging resistant permeable pavement (CRP) of uniform pore structure to address infrastructure flooding. It has improved strength (twice as strong >50 MPa) and higher permeability (ten times more) than conventional systems of equal porosity, yet does not clog despite exposure to stormwater sediments.
This Fellowship will significantly reengineer my novel pavement to develop the first permeable pavement, with sufficient strength and resilience, for the extreme airport case, while also applicable to less extreme highway, railway and novel green wall scenarios. These step-change advancements will be achieved by steel reinforcement, used in permeable pavements for the first time. The structural performance, material integrity, skid resistance, long-term durability and hydrological (drainage) properties will be assessed for airport suitability and improved if required.
This project will be the first to investigate conductive (direct contact) and convective (transmission through air) heat transfer through permeable pavements used in high-value heavy load-bearing infrastructure. I will use heat extracted from the ground (ground source energy system, GSES) in these new pavements to melt the deposited ice/snow and drain away the excess water. Conventional pavements can be heated by conduction only, whereas CRP can be heated through both conduction and convection (via the pores) as the novel pore structure also allows for natural convection.
This Fellowship will, through extensive laboratory experimentation, computer modelling and the permanent large-scale deployment at Inverness Airport (spanning across multiple technology readiness levels (1-7), a measure of technology maturity), develop climate change resilient infrastructure materials that can be used to deliver a sustainable built environment resistant to flooding, ice/snow build-up and the harmful heat island effect. To achieve this ambitious goal, I will address significant structural, material, thermal and hydrological challenges with wide reaching economic, environmental and societal benefits to the construction and transportation sector.
Permeable concrete pavements are one of the most promising mitigation strategies to prevent surface flooding, they rapidly drain stormwater through otherwise impermeable infrastructure. Conventional permeable pavements are, however, prone to clogging, due to debris trapped within the pore network, blocking the pavement and reducing its drainage capacity. The frequent required maintenance degrades performance and service life and is difficult to perform in an active airport. Most importantly, conventional permeable pavements have insufficient strength, making them unsuited for airports. There is an urgent need for a new system that can reliably keep airports clear of standing water and ice/snow.
I recently developed next generation clogging resistant permeable pavement (CRP) of uniform pore structure to address infrastructure flooding. It has improved strength (twice as strong >50 MPa) and higher permeability (ten times more) than conventional systems of equal porosity, yet does not clog despite exposure to stormwater sediments.
This Fellowship will significantly reengineer my novel pavement to develop the first permeable pavement, with sufficient strength and resilience, for the extreme airport case, while also applicable to less extreme highway, railway and novel green wall scenarios. These step-change advancements will be achieved by steel reinforcement, used in permeable pavements for the first time. The structural performance, material integrity, skid resistance, long-term durability and hydrological (drainage) properties will be assessed for airport suitability and improved if required.
This project will be the first to investigate conductive (direct contact) and convective (transmission through air) heat transfer through permeable pavements used in high-value heavy load-bearing infrastructure. I will use heat extracted from the ground (ground source energy system, GSES) in these new pavements to melt the deposited ice/snow and drain away the excess water. Conventional pavements can be heated by conduction only, whereas CRP can be heated through both conduction and convection (via the pores) as the novel pore structure also allows for natural convection.
This Fellowship will, through extensive laboratory experimentation, computer modelling and the permanent large-scale deployment at Inverness Airport (spanning across multiple technology readiness levels (1-7), a measure of technology maturity), develop climate change resilient infrastructure materials that can be used to deliver a sustainable built environment resistant to flooding, ice/snow build-up and the harmful heat island effect. To achieve this ambitious goal, I will address significant structural, material, thermal and hydrological challenges with wide reaching economic, environmental and societal benefits to the construction and transportation sector.
Organisations
- Imperial College London (Fellow, Lead Research Organisation)
- Costain Group (Collaboration)
- Newcastle University (Collaboration)
- HIGHWAYS ENGLAND (Collaboration)
- City of London Corporation (Project Partner)
- Construction Industry Research and Information Association (Project Partner)
- Aecom (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Mott Macdonald (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Stantec UK Ltd (Project Partner)
- Inverness Airport (Project Partner)
- CEMEX Global HQ (Project Partner)
- Highways England (Project Partner)
Publications
Ghalandari T
(2023)
Thermal performance optimisation of Pavement Solar Collectors using response surface methodology
in Renewable Energy
Kia A
(2023)
Adapting the Built Environment for Climate Change
Kia A
(2022)
Freeze-Thaw Durability of Conventional and Novel Permeable Pavement Replacement
in Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part B: Pavements
Kia A
(2022)
Developing permeable pavements for a more sustainable built environment
in Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering
Kia A
(2023)
Freeze-thaw durability of air-entrained high-strength clogging resistant permeable pavements
in Construction and Building Materials
Kia, A.
(2022)
Next-generation climate change resilient permeable pavements
Kia, A.
(2022)
Freeze-thaw durability of novel permeable concrete pavements
Kia, A.
(2022)
Novel clogging resistant permeable pavements
Description | Developed preliminary results for a high-strength heated permeable pavement that can be used in critical infrastructure. In the future years of this award, this technology will be developed further to the extent that it will be used by airports and highways. |
Exploitation Route | The developed technology can be used by infrastructure operators with wide benefits to the economy, environment and society. |
Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Construction Energy Environment Government Democracy and Justice Transport |
Description | Industry magazines, exhibitions to the wider public |
First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Construction,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Transport |
Impact Types | Societal |
Description | ICE Research and Development Enabling Fund |
Amount | £35,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Institution of Civil Engineers |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2023 |
End | 02/2024 |
Description | UKRI Impact Acceleration Account |
Amount | £99,994 (GBP) |
Organisation | United Kingdom Research and Innovation |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2023 |
End | 03/2024 |
Description | Costain |
Organisation | Costain Group |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Meeting regularly to deliver trial sites, working together on joint funding applications |
Collaborator Contribution | Knowledge exchange, technical and commercial support and advice |
Impact | Working together to deliver trial sites |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | National Highways |
Organisation | Highways England |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Working together to deliver Kiacrete under real-world live traffic conditions. |
Collaborator Contribution | Regular meeting, knowledge exchange, technical support |
Impact | Working on a funding application together to trial our technology Kiacrete in their Moreton-in-Marsh facility. |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | Newcastle National Green Infrastructure Facility |
Organisation | Newcastle University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Large-scale delivery and monitoring of Kiacrete |
Collaborator Contribution | Site hire, data logging and handling in-kind |
Impact | Multi-disciplinary collaboration (Civil, Geotechnics, Structural, Material and Hydrological) |
Start Year | 2023 |
Title | High strength porous cement-based materials. |
Description | Developed a new type of high-strength clogging resistant permeable pavement |
IP Reference | PCT/GB2019/053217 |
Protection | Patent / Patent application |
Year Protection Granted | 2018 |
Licensed | No |
Impact | I am in discussions with a number of transport infrastructure operators, engineering consultancies, contractor and suppliers in order to license our patented technology Kiacrete. |
Company Name | Permia Ltd |
Description | |
Year Established | 2019 |
Impact | Increases the visibility of my technology Kiacrete and enables other interested industry partners to know more about Kiacrete and reach out to us. |
Website | http://www.permiapave.com |
Description | Engineers Without Borders |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Furthermore, I have been invited to talk about my research and career to date at Engineers Without Borders. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Featured in a Magazine Article |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Featured in a magazine article: Kiacrete - A new kind of permeable paving embeds recycled plastic tubes in a self-compacting cementitious material. Innovation, Concrete quarterly, The Concrete Centre. 279 pp. 6-7 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.concretecentre.com/Specification/Innovative-concrete/Kiacrete.aspx |
Description | Featured in a Magazine Article |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Featured in a magazine article: Kia, A. (2022) Climate change resilient permeable pavement. Concrete magazine, Concrete Society. 56(4) pp. 15-16 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Featured/invited magazine article |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Invited/featured in a magazine article Kia, A. (2022) The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Imperial magazine/52 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/be-inspired/magazine/issue-52/42/ |
Description | Global Summer School |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | I have designed and led a number of outreach events over the past 3 years, including Imperial's 'Global Summer School', to enthuse a strong interest in science and engineering within the future generation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022,2023 |
Description | Imperial's Taster Lecture Series |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | I have been invited to talk about my research and career to date at Imperial's Taster Lecture Series |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Inspiring Engineers |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | I have designed and led a number of outreach events over the past 3 years, including 'Inspiring Engineers' (with engineering consultants Mott MacDonald) to enthuse a strong interest in science and engineering within the future generation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022,2023 |
Description | Invited to make an ICE profile page |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Invited to make an Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) profile page |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.ice.org.uk/what-is-civil-engineering/who-are-civil-engineers/dr-alalea-kia/ |
Description | Showcased my research at the Great Exhibition Road Festival in 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A large group of general public attended our stand and this increased the interest in science and engineering |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |