Effects of Media Breakage on Infiltration Characteristics in Stormwater Management System

For sand and zeolite filter media in stormwater BMPs, media breakage effects on infiltration were investigated. Compaction effort and infiltration force were mainly examined for breakage sources. The 1-D column infiltration tests for un-compacted and compacted media filters were conducted to investigate the breakage effect on infiltration. As a result, the following findings were deduced: 1) particle breakage due to filtration forces was found to be relatively minimal; 2) un-compacted media had lesser amount of crushed particles and permeability fluctuations compared to compacted media; 3) even without the presence of suspended solids in the influent, reduction in permeability was found, which resulted from rearrangement and re-entrainment of media particle itself; 4) only media particle breakage resistance is considered, sand was revealed to have better performance compared to zeolite media.