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Granulated waste tyres in concrete paving block

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 Proceedings of the 6th Asia-Pacific Structural Engineering and Construction Conference
(APSEC 2006), 5 – 6 September 2006, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

GRANULATED WASTE TYRES IN CONCRETE PAVING

BLOCK

Tung-Chai Ling1 and Hasanan Md Nor2

Department of Geotechnics and Transportation, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,
Malaysia, Skudai, 81300, Malaysia
E-mail: 1: [email protected], 2: [email protected]

ABSTRACT: This research studies the potential of using crumb rubber as a partial
substitute for course sand in the production of concrete paving block. Laboratory trials
were conducted to compare and investigate the effect of using three particle size of
crumb rubber (1 - 3 mm), (3 - 5 mm) and combination of both. A series of tests were
carried out to determine the properties of the blocks prepared with and without crumb
rubber. The dry density, compressive strength and skid resistance were measured for
laboratory prepared samples. It is believed that cement acting as a binder mixed with
crumb rubber make concrete blocks more flexible and thus, provides softness to the
surface. At the same time it also provides sufficient strength or minimum required
strength (30 MPa) in accordance to MA20 for 60 mm thickness rectangular block to be
used on pavement for vehicles of less than 3 tonnes gross weight.

Keywords: Crumb rubber; Concrete paving block; Skid resistance

1. Introduction

In developing countries, utilization of concrete blocks as paving material is widespread.

Cement and aggregate, which are the most important constituents used in concrete block
making, are also a vital material for the construction industry. This inevitably led to quarry of
natural materials used for production of concrete block. Thus, indicate a growing concern for
protecting the environment and a need to preserve natural resources (such as aggregate) by
using alternative materials (recycled or waste tire materials). On the other hand, disposal of
the waste tyres all around the world is increasing every year. This keeps on increasing every
year with the number of vehicles, as do the future problems relating to the crucial
environment issues (Epps, 1994). Accumulation of discarded waste tire has been a major
concern because waste rubber is not easily biodegradable even after a long period of landfill
treatment.
Existing or commercial concrete is characterized as a composite material with high
compressive strength, moderate tensile strength and with a low toughness (Li et al., 2004). It
is anticipated that an ideal concrete block for pavement construction should have high tensile
strength and high toughness. Therefore, high strength and high toughness concrete has to be
developed for block paving. For concrete, it is found that the higher the strength, the lower the
toughness. It is difficult to develop high strength and high toughness concrete without
modifications. Owing to the very high toughness of waste tires, it is expected that adding
crumb rubber into concrete mixture can increase the toughness of concrete considerably
(Toutanji, 1996; Siddique and Naik, 2004; Li et al., 2004). Laboratory tests have shown that
the introduction of waste tire rubber considerably increase toughness, impact resistance, and
plastic deformation of concrete, offering a great potential for it to be used in sound/crash
barriers, retaining structures and pavement structures (Eldin et al., 1993; Khatib and Bayomy,
1999; Goulias and Ali, 1998).
Unfortunately, not much attention has been paid to the use of waste tires in Portland
cement concrete mixtures, particularly for highway use. Limited work was done by
researchers to investigate the potential use of rubber tires in concrete paving block mixtures.

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 Proceedings of the 6th Asia-Pacific Structural Engineering and Construction Conference
(APSEC 2006), 5 – 6 September 2006, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

In this work, an experimental study was conducted on the concrete block mixtures with and
without crumb rubber and the basic engineering properties were investigated.

2. Experimental Work

2.1 Material Properties

Materials used in this study consist of ordinary Portland cement complying with MS 522. The
natural aggregates used include natural river sand as the fine aggregate and crushed granite
with nominal size less than 10 mm as the coarse aggregate. The weight ratio of course to fine
aggregate of all paving blocks was kept to about 1 : 2 throughout the whole experimental
works.
Crumb rubber is a fine material with the gradation close to that of the sand (Figure1) is
produced by mechanical shredding. In this study, two particle sizes of crumb rubber were
used: 1 – 3 mm and 3 – 5 mm as a partial substitute for sand in the production of concrete
paving block.

Figure 1: Crumb rubber

2.2 Mixture Proportions

Two series of mixes were prepared using coarse and fine aggregate, cement, water and
additive. The difference between the two series was the cement to aggregate and sand ratio.
Where, (cement: aggregate: sand) 15 % : 30 % : 55 % and 15 % : 28.3 % : 56.6 % were used
in series I and II, respectively.
The first series, three different categories: (a) 1 – 3 mm (b) 3 – 5 mm and (c) Combined
(1) & (2) of crumb rubber were used to replace fine aggregate (sand) at equal amount of 10 %
by weight. The second series, only (c) Combined (a) & (b) of crumb rubber was used to
replace fine aggregate (sand) at equal amount of 10 %, 20 % and 30 % by volume. The mixed
materials used were approximately 8.5 kg for each batch of three paving blocks samples.

2.3 Fabrication and Curing of Test Pavers

The paving blocks were fabricated in steel moulds with internal dimensions of 200 mm in
length, 100 mm in width and 60 mm in depth as shown in Figure 2. The mix was poured into
the mould in two layers of about equal depth. Compaction was applied manually using a

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 Proceedings of the 6th Asia-Pacific Structural Engineering and Construction Conference
(APSEC 2006), 5 – 6 September 2006, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

hammer at each layer. The concrete blocks were then removed from the steel moulds one day
after casting and cured in air at room temperature (Figure 3) for 7 and 28-day until tested.

Figure 2: Fabrication of concrete Figure 3: Air curing of paving block

paving block specimens specimens concrete

2.4 Testing Program

A range of tests were carried out at structure and material laboratory, in Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia to determine dry density, skid resistance and compressive strength at 7 and 28-day
of the paving blocks specimens. The skid resistance of paving block was determined using a
British Pendulum Skid Resistance Tester (Figure 4) and it was expressed as the measured
British Pendulum Number (BPN) as specified by ASTM E303-93.
The compressive strength was determined using a compressive testing as shown in Figure
5. The load, increased at a rate of 0.30 kN/s, was applied to the nominal area of block
specimen. Prior to the loading test, the block specimens were soft capped with two pieces of
plywood. The compressive strength was calculated by dividing the failure load by the loading
area of the block specimen.

Figure 4: Skid resistance test Figure 5: Compressive

strength test

3. Experimental Results and Discussions

3.1 Dry Density

Results in Figure 6 indicated that dry density decreased to as low as about 2.47 g/cm3 when 10
% of total sand weight was replacement by rubber. Because of low specific gravity of rubber
particles, unit weight of mixtures containing rubber decreases with the increases in the

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 Proceedings of the 6th Asia-Pacific Structural Engineering and Construction Conference
(APSEC 2006), 5 – 6 September 2006, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

percentage of rubber content. Moreover, increase in rubber content increases the air content,
which in turn reduces the unit weight of the mixtures. Figure 7 shows the dry density of the
concrete blocks ranged from 2.51 to 2.65 g/cm3 depending on the replacement of rubber
content in the mixture. At 30 % rubber content, the dry density diminished to about 95 % of
the normal concrete. However, the decrease in dry density of rubber is negligible when rubber
content is lower than 10 – 20 % of the total aggregate volume (Khatib and Bayomy, 1999).

2.65 2.7

2.6 2.65
U n it w e ig h t , g /c m 3

Unit weight, g/cm3

2.6
2.55
2.55
2.5
2.5
2.45 2.45

2.4 2.4
Control 1-3mm 3-5mm 1-5mm 0 10 20 30
Rubber content by 10% sand weight Rubber content by total sand volume (%)

Figure 6: Dry density of series I paving blocks Figure 7: Dry density of series II
paving blocks

3.2 Compressive Strength

The results of series I and II are summarized in Figure 8 and 9, respectively. Each presented
value is an average of three samples measurement. The results presented in Figure 8 indicated
that, the initial 3 and 7-day compressive strength of three different mix crumb sizes were
about 9.3 and 17.2 MPa, respectively. Comparing the 28-day compressive strength of three
mix crumb size crumb rubber mixture, the paving blocks mixed with crumb size (c) (26.7
MPa) seemed to perform better than those mixed with single crumb size. This was perhaps
due to the better grading of the combined rubber which allowed better compaction and higher
density.
The results presented in Figure 9 shows a systematic reduction in compressive strength
with the increase in rubber content for the paving blocks. Two grades of paving block having
initial 28-day compressive strength of about 26 and 32 MPa were achieved for 20 % and 10 %
replacement of sand with crumb rubber by volume, respectively. For another grade,
compressive strength of about 42 MPa decreased to almost 20 MPa when 30% replacement of
sand volume by crumb rubber was made. This indicated about 52% reduction in the 28-day
strength. However, for the 7-day strength, the rate of strength reduction was more or less that
of 28-day strength.
The reason for the strength reduction could be attributed both to a reduction of quantity
of the solid load carrying material and lack of adhesion at the boundaries of the rubber
aggregate, soft rubber particles may behave as voids in the concrete matrix.

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 Proceedings of the 6th Asia-Pacific Structural Engineering and Construction Conference
(APSEC 2006), 5 – 6 September 2006, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

30 45
40

Compressive Strength (MPa)

25
35
20
30
1- 5 m m 25 28 days
15 1- 3 m m
20 7 days
3- 5mm
10
15
10
5
5
0
0
3 7 28 Control 10% 20% 30%
Da y s Rubber content by total sand volume (%)

Figure 8: Compressive strength of series I Figure 9: Compressive strength of series II

paving blocks paving blocks

3.3 Skid Resistance

Skid resistance was measured in accordance to ASTM E3030-93, four swings of the
pendulum were made for each test surface paving block. In general, results (Figure 10)
indicated that the skid resistance was slightly higher for the crumb rubber paving block than
the control paving blocks. It was mainly due to the highly elastic properties and surface
texture of rubber to create more friction as the pendulum passed across it.
British pendulum number (BPN)

76
75.5
75
74.5
74
73.5
73
72.5
72
71.5
71
Control 10% 20% 30%

Rubber content by total sand volume (%)

Figure 10: Skid resistance of crumb rubber paving blocks

4. Conclusions

1. Compressive strength of concrete paving block is affected differently depending on

the size and content of crumb rubber. Preliminary test results indicated that the
compressive strength of three mix crumb size crumb rubber mixture: (a) 1 – 3 mm,
(b) 3 – 5 mm and (c) 1 – 5 mm were comparable at 3 and 7-day. Comparing the 28-
day compressive strength, (c) 1 – 5 mm seemed to perform better.
2. For the effect of crumb rubber content, the test results shown that there was a
systematic reduction in the compressive and dry density with the increase in rubber
content from 0 % to 30 %.
3. Concrete paving block containing rubber particles seem to provide better skid
resistance.

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 Proceedings of the 6th Asia-Pacific Structural Engineering and Construction Conference
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4. It is possible to fabricate block containing rubber up to 30 % by sand volume using

chemical and mineral admixtures, which gives better bonding characteristics to
rubber and significantly improves the performance of crumb rubber concrete paving
block.

References

Eldin, N. N. and Senouci, A.B. (1993). Rubber-Tire Practices as Concrete Aggregate. J

Mater Civil Engng. 5(4):478–96.
Epps, J. A. (1994). Uses of Recycled Rubber Tires in Highways. Synthesis of highway
practice 198, Transportation Research Board, National Research Council, Washington,
D.C.
Goulias, D.G. and Ali, A.H. (1998). Evaluation of Rubber-Filled Concrete and Correlation
between Destructive and Nondestructive Testing Results. Cem Concr Aggreg. 20(1):140–
4.
Khatib, Z. K. and Bayomy, F. M. (1999). Rubberized Portland Cement Concrete. ASCE
Journal of Material in Civil Engineering. 11(3): 206-213.
Li, G., Garrick. G., Eggers, J., Abadie, C., Stubblefield. M. A. and Pang. S. S. (2004). Waste
Tire Fiber Modified Concrete. Composites: Part B 35: 305-312.
Li, G., Stubblefield, M. A., Garrick, G., Eggers, J., Abadie, C. and Huang, Baoshan (2004).
Development of Waste Tire Modified Concrete. Cement and Concrete Research. 34
2283-2289.
Siddiquw, R. and Naik, T. R. (2004). Properties of Concrete Containing Scrap-Tire rubber-
An Overview. Waste Management. 24: 563-569.
Toutanji, H. A. (1996). The Use of Rubber Tire Particles in Concrete to Replace Mineral
Aggregate. Cement and Concrete Composites. 18: 135-139.

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