Rainwater harvest with desert-sand brick: an adaptive strategy in water resources management to climate change

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-3988124/v1

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Rainwater harvest with desert-sand brick: an adaptive strategy in water resources management to climate change

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3988124/v1

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Journal Publication

published 11 Oct, 2024

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Urbanization causes many changes to the hydrological cycle, including radiation flux, precipitation amount, water evaporation and evapotranspiration, and soil infiltration. This study presents an adaptive strategy that aims to achieve efficient use of rainwater and realize sustainable development in the urban area by using desert sand. The permeable brick is made of desert sand, of which compressive strength is intensive, water permeability is high, and fabrication cost is low. Two water-permeable holes are included in the brick which is convenient for rainwater infiltration and maintenance of the permeable pavement. Experimental results show that 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. Hence, the kind of permeable brick can render substantial economic benefits and ecological improvements.

Sustainable development

Adaptive water management

Desert sand

Pavement

Rainwater harvest

Around the world, urbanization causes many changes to the hydrological cycle, including radiation flux, precipitation amount, water evaporation and evapotranspiration, and soil infiltration (Marsalek et al. 2014). China is currently experiencing rapid urbanization. Because of the impermeable surfaces on the roofs, roads and ground, presently 70–80% of rainfall in China becomes runoff in urban areas, creating serious waterlogging problems (Wu et al. 2016). For instance, a severe waterlogging event occurred in Beijing on July 21, 2012, which resulted in a significant loss of lives, as well as properties: 79 victims and 1.79 billion US dollars in economic loss (Xia et al. 2017). In July 2013, Yan’an City in the Shanxi province endured five torrential rainstorms in succession. The continuous storms led to disastrous geological damages including landslides and mudslides, which resulted in the deaths of 42 people in the area and direct economic losses amounting to more than 1.85 billion US dollars (Shao et al. 2016). In that case, the Chinese central government of China issued the following criterion - Technical Guidelines for the Construction of Sponge City: Low Impact Development of Rainwater System Construction (Trial) in 2014 (MOHURD 2014). Enabling cities to save and resupply rainwater, the guidelines aim to improve China’s resilience to urban expansion and climate change through practices and design principles similar to those in developed countries (Liu 2016; Fletcher et al. 2015). The permeable pavement is one such practice that allows storm water to infiltrate into the soil and ultimately recharge the groundwater (Alyaseri and Zhou 2016). In comparison with traditional drainage systems, stormwater retention and infiltration are sustainable and cost-effective processes, in addition to being suitable for urban areas (Scholz 2014). Moreover, the use of permeable pavement, in place of traditional asphalt or concrete, has shown the reduction of surface runoff and substantially lower peak discharge (Hunt et al. 2002; Rushton 2001). For example, the permeable road obviously reduced the surface runoffs in comparison with the impervious roads following a heavy rain on August 20, 2018, in Dalian, a city in the northeast of China.

Might the desert sand be used as a substitute for river sand as the fine aggregate in the concrete? Presently the requirement for infrastructure has increased exponentially with the rapid development of urbanization. About 32–50 billion tons of sand and gravel, nearly all from riverbeds or quarries, are extracted globally each year with the increasing demand of construction materials (Koehnken et al. 2020), which causes the over-exploitation of natural source, burdens environmental pollution and further threatens civil living environment. Hence how to utilize alternative materials is crucial for reducing the dependency of non-renewable sand. Fortunately, there are abundant desert sand resources around the world. In fact, 20% total land area of the earth, about 320 million km², is occupied with desert area (Fig. 1a) (Geosalon 2019) Not only will the engineering cost be reduced but also local ecological environment will be protected if the desert sand resources can be used in engineering practice. The main component of desert sand is the same as that of river sand, which contains SiO₂ and Al₂O₃. However, the particle size of desert sand is less than that of river sand, which is negative to achieve a superior packing density. Hence, the desert sand has to be processed before being used as the concrete aggregates.

(Here is Fig. 1)

The permeable pavement, an adaptive strategy to climate change, is capable of absorbing, accumulating and slow-releasing natural water, which can supplement soil water and groundwater, enhance convection and evaporation, and reduce urban heat waves (Wang and Zhang 2020). In comparison with traditional drainage systems, stormwater retention and infiltration in the permeable pavement are sustainable and cost-effective processes especially suitable for urban areas (Scholz 2014). Moreover, the use of permeable pavement, in place of traditional asphalt or concrete, has shown the reduction of surface runoff and substantially lower peak discharge (Hunt et al. 2002; Rushton 2001). The concrete permeable bricks, a material to construct the pavement, is so called non-sintered permeable brick for the brick is created through the process of binders bonding with other aggregates, and no additional sintering process is needed (Zhu et al. 2017). Presently, two types of non-sintered bricks may be found in the construction material markets: one uses cement as the binder and coarse gravel as the aggregate; another, e.g., the Shengtai sand-based permeable brick (SSPB), uses organic material as the binder and find sand, i.e. river sand, as the aggregate. The SSPB has been applied in many projects supported by China government, such as Beijing Olympic Park, Shanghai World Expo, Beijing Chang'an Street, etc. Although the non-sintered permeable brick is more limited in the selection of raw materials, the brick is very beneficial to the enterprise from an economic perspective due to the low energy consumption during the preparation process (Shakir et al. 2013). The objective of this paper is to contribute preliminary but vital insights into the development of permeable pavement from the economic and ecological perspective in the developing countries.

The authors went to the desert in Zhangwu County of Liaoning Province to obtain sand specimens and investigate the way washing off the sands with too small sizes. Two sand samples, each of which was 500 g, were then separately sieved in an 8411-type electrical sieve shaker for 8–10 minutes. Then the weight of the sand left on every sieve was measured using an electronic balance with the precision of 0.01 g.

The new type of desert-sand brick introduced here was designed and produced by the authors at a laboratory of Dalian University of Technology. The desert-sand brick was characterized with the main aggregates, the sand scrubbed from the desert after it was cleaned and dried. The PO52.5 Portland cement was used as the binder. The raw materials, together with some additives, were put into a mixing bucket and then stirred with a blender. After fully mixed, the mixture was placed in the mould for static pressing of 50 kN for 30s (Fig. 2). Finally, the desert-sand brick were cured in a standard box for 28 days with the temperature of 20 ℃ and humidity of 95%. The dimension of the permeable brick was 200×100×60 mm, and two internal drainage pores, which formed a truncated cone-shape - narrow at the top with the diametre of 10 mm and wide at the bottom with the diametre of 20 mm, were included in the brick. The sand/aggregate ratio, water/cement ratio and porosity of the concrete were controlled in the range of 70–100%, 27–30% and 1–5%, respectively. Based on the required mixing ratio of different raw materials and the number of paved bricks per square metre, the cost of the raw materials for each square metre of the bricks was calculated. Generally, the ratio of the total cost to the expense of the raw material is 2:1.

(Here is Fig. 2)

3.1 Properties of Desert Sand

The product is environmentally friendly due to the innovativeness in the manufacturing method with non-sintering procedure, and the raw materials with a kind of processed desert sand. The sand is extracted form Zhangwu Desert of Liaoning province. Zhangwu County is an ideal site to obtain sand for brick fabrication: the traffic is convenient, as many provincial roads lie between Zhangwu Railway Station and the desert, and a factory has even been built near the provincial highway to produce the scrubbed sand. The sieve analysis of the original and scrubbed sand from Zhangwu Desert is presented in Fig. 1b. The results reveal that the bulk density is 1,532 kg/m³ and the median grain size, D₅₀, is 0.37 mm. The majority of the grain sizes range between 0.125 and 0.450 mm. Thus, the desert sand can be considered as the superfine sand. At present, there is no National Specifications or Codes for using desert sand in mortar and concrete as a fine aggregate material in China⁹. However, the desert sand needs to undergo a pre-processing to become suitable for construction. Typically, before being used in fabricating bricks, the sand will be washed to discard the over small silt, and then the remained sand will be dried; this is so called “scrubbed sand”. The bulk density and the median dimetre of the scrubbed sand used in the study are 2,637 kg/m³ and 0.42 mm, respectively. Thus, the scrubbed sand, with a bright colour and uniform grain size, is an ideal material to make the sand-based permeable bricks.

3.2 Performances of the Desert-Sand Brick

Some properties of the desert-sand brick designed by the authors were compared with the performances of SSPB and requirements of industry standard, JC/T 945–2005 “Water Permeable Brick (2005)” in China, as shown in Fig. 3. For permeable bricks, the compressive strength, permeability and water-storage rate are the three most important performance parameters. To meet the standard requirements, the compressive strength of permeable bricks should be more than 30 MPa and the water-storage rate should be not less than 0.6 g/cm², as the dashed lines shown in Fig. 3. 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. Hence it could be concluded that the compressive strength and water-storage rate of the desert-sand brick developed in this study satisfied the requirements of the Professional Standard for the permeable bricks in China (JC/T 945–2005). Moreover, the minimum and mean compressive strengths of a single brick for the desert-sand brick were 4% and 89% more than those for the SSPB (Rechsand Science & Technology Group 2008), respectively. Thus, the desert-sand brick exhibits a high compressive strength, which is more suitable for engineering applications. In addition, two holes are included in the brick, which permits rainwater to easily infiltrate into the ground. In addition, the water-permeable hole is narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, which is relatively convenient for the maintenance of permeable pavement.

(Here is Fig. 3)

3.3 Economic and ecologic benefits of the desert-sand brick

The fabrication cost of the water-permeable brick designed by the authors is only 12 US dollars/m², which is close to that of conventional concrete permeable bricks, and much lower than that of the sand-based permeable bricks that already exist in the market. The low price of the desert-sand brick allows ordinary people, even farmers, to buy permeable bricks to pave pathways and roads. Thus, the low-cost of our permeable brick will increase its competitiveness in the market, and thus contribute to the improvement of both urban and rural environments.

Moreover, permeability is crucial to the performance of permeable bricks. Via enhanced permeability, permeable bricks help rainwater to seep into the ground and replenish groundwater. In Beijing, for example, it is possible to calculate the water-saving efficiency of using permeable bricks. The annual average precipitation in Beijing City is 620.6 mm (BMS 2017). According to the permeable coefficient of the permeable brick designed by the authors, a rainfall-infiltration capacity of 3.10 m³ can be formed by a 1-m² permeable brick over a 5-year service period. As we know, the Olympic Park mentioned above is 11.59 km². It is anticipated that 50% of the rainwater falling on the square can be collected with the permeable pavement for most of the square ground of the Olympic Park was paved with the permeable brick. That’s to say, the volume of collected rainwater would be up to 3.59 million m³ in the park per year. In Beijing, approximately 40% of the tab water is pumped from the underground water (Wei and Shen 2013). Hence the benefit of the collected rainwater may be evaluated referring to the value of the tab water with the same volume, for the collected rainwater has replenished the underground water and decreased the consumption of the tap water. Presently the price of tap water is 0.55 US dollars/m³ in Beijing (China Water Network 2018). Thus, the direct economic benefit of the rainwater collected with the permeable brick in the Beijing Olympic Park is 1.98 million US dollars/year.

In addition, the desert-sand brick designed by the authors can play an indirect role in curbing land degradation. Most non-sintering permeable bricks require large amounts of natural aggregates that are excavated from riverbeds; these excavation activities can cause damage to the surrounding ecosystems (Said et al. 2015). The desert-sand brick, however, is produced using desert sand as the major aggregates. One single brick sample uses at least 1.10 kg of desert sand in the production process. In other words, 55 kg of desert sand will be consumed per square metre of the pavement. If the bricks were paved on half of the area in the Beijing Olympic Park, the kind of permeable bricks would consume 318,725 tons of desert sand. Thus, the use of desert sand in permeable bricks could be considered as a new way of friendly environmentally construction, promising ecologic benefits.

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 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.

Acknowledgements This study was supported by the Open Research Fund Program of Key Laboratory of Process and Control of Soil Loss on the Loess Plateau (201903) and National Key R & D Project (2022YFC3702302). The authors would like to thank Xiaobin Zhu and Lu Liu for their work in this study.

Author contributions All authors jointly contribute to the conceptualization, formal analysis, writing and editing and revision of the paper.

Data Availability All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

Competing Interests Statement The authors declare no competing financial or non-financial interests.

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Journal Publication

published 11 Oct, 2024

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Editorial decision: Major revisions
14 Mar, 2024
Reviewers agreed at journal
26 Feb, 2024
Reviewers invited by journal
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You are reading this latest preprint version

Rainwater harvest with desert-sand brick: an adaptive strategy in water resources management to climate change

Status:

Journal Publication

Version 1

Abstract

Figures

1 Introduction

2 Methods and materials

3 Results and Discussion

3.1 Properties of Desert Sand

3.2 Performances of the Desert-Sand Brick

3.3 Economic and ecologic benefits of the desert-sand brick

4 Conclusions

Declarations

References

Status:

Journal Publication

Version 1