BEHAVIOURAL STUDY OF RUBBERIZED CONCRETE

ABSTRACT

Concrete is one of the most widely used materials in the world and as result require significant natural
resources every year. The sources of natural resources needed for concrete are depleting gradually. The
availability of natural aggregate at reasonable rate is big concern of concrete industry. As yearly
consumption of concrete is more than 30billion tons, even if a small percentage of natural aggregate is
replaced by recycled material, it will result in considerable saving of natural resources. On other hand,
scrap tyre rubber is generated from used tyres in automobile industry. The utilisation of this waste has
become environmental concern. Therefore use of scrap tyre material in concrete provide twofold benefit
to environment as it helps to reduce both natural resource demand of concrete production and waste
management problem of scrap tyre.

In this study we aim to explore the effect of rubber tyre chips on compressive and flexural strength of
concrete. To evaluate these properties, 36 specimens each of slab (70x15x15) cm and cube (15x15x15)
cm of M35 grade concrete are tested. In this research, two methods to improve the performance of
rubberized concrete are examined namely, pre-treatment of rubber chips using sodium hydroxide
(NaOH) solution and use of poly-carboxylic ether based super plasticizer. The expected result is that
compressive and flexural strength increase by 12-13% and 2-3% respectively.

Keywords: rubber aggregates, rubberized concrete, sodium hydroxide (NaOH), polycarboxylic ether
super plasticizer

1. INTRODUCTION:
Concrete is the second most used substance after water. Worldwide over 10 billion tons of concrete is
produced every year and as a result it requires significant amount of natural resources. Aggregates are
the important constituents in concrete. They give body to concrete, reduce shrinkage and effect the
economy. The mere fact that the aggregate occupy 70-80 percent volume of concrete, their impact on
various characteristic and properties of concrete is undoubtedly considerable. Extraction of aggregate
from natural source has negative effect on environment. Likewise, Solid waste disposal is a worldwide
problem. Recycling of such non-biodegradable waste material such as waste rubber tyre is a great task
to humanity. The sheer volume of tires discarded each year -- almost 300 million tires in the United
States alone -- makes safe disposal difficult. Un-recycled tyre waste is an enormous global problem
because of their non-biodegradability, their flammability and their chemical composition that leads to
leaching of toxic substance into ground on dumping and hazardous fumes on incineration. As
consumption of these two substances is huge, even if small percentage of it recycled, it will have
considerable impact on environment. Hence considerable research have been conducted over decades
on use of waste tyre in concrete.

In this research, an attempt has been made to study effect of use of rubber on compressive as well as
flexural strength of concrete as both are tool to predict durability and resistance against various stress
produced. An additional issue has been tried to address to seek ways of making the concrete green
through the choice of material while retaining core advantage of concrete. Since coarse aggregate has a
significant effect on flexural and compressive strength, this research focuses on effect on partial
replacement of coarse aggregate by rubber chips on concrete.

2. LITERATURE SURVEY:

Over the years, large number of studies have been carried out examining material properties of
rubberized concrete. Agampodi S.M .Mendis Et Al [1] observed material properties of various CRC
mixes of similar strengths. They concluded that by altering other mixing parameters, similar
compressive strength can be attained from different CRCs with different level of rubber content. They
also found irrespective of rubber content, similar strength CRCs show similar splitting tensile strength,
modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity and stress strain behaviour. Atahan and Yucel[2] in their
research have tested six different concrete mix designs containing coarse and fine crumb rubber
for properties vital to concrete safety conditions such as static compression to determine the
compressive strength and elastic modulus of CRC and other set eighteen samples were tested
for dynamic drop tests to evaluate the influence of rubber on energy dissipation.. It was
observed that by replacement of 20–40% of aggregates with crumb rubber would have positive
effect on concrete safety barriers in locations where strength, fracture resistance and energy
dissipation are essential. Ayman Moustafa ET. Al [3] studied the results of the shake-table tests
using sequence of scaled historical ground motion recorded in the Northridge-01 1994
earthquake with near-fault pulse like characteristics on a large-scale rubberized concrete
column and compared result with conventional concrete. They partially replaced 20% of the
volume of fine aggregate with crumb rubber in the rubberized column. The cumulative
dissipated energy was increased by 16.5% in the rubberized column compared with the RC
column. The rubberized column showed a higher average hysteresis damping before the rebar
fracture in the RC column. The viscous damping of the rubberized column was higher than that
of the RC column because of the viscoelastic nature of the rubber. Clay Naito et al. [4] studied
use of crumb rubber in concrete for improvement of structures against blast effects. In this
experimental and analytical examination they observed that the partial replacement of
aggregate by crumb rubber results in a decrease in unit weight, compression strength, splitting
tensile strength, and elastic modulus, the modulus of rupture was not affected by replacement
of up to 40% rubber aggregate and flexural failure modes occur at lower values due to the use
of rubber replacement. Gang Xue and Pei [5] have checked the behaviour of rubber concrete,
with respect to axial compressive properties were tested at temperatures of −30 and 20°C. The
results show that at low temperature, the stress and strain of rubber concrete are significantly
enhanced compared with their values at ambient temperature. The trend of pre peak stress-
strain curves of rubber concrete at a low temperature of −30°C and ambient temperature of
20°C are basically similar. Osama Yusuf et.al [6] carried out enhancement study on CRC
mechanical properties by using pre-treatment of rubber by NaOH, silica fume additive and
assessing cement content .They concluded 0.5hr pre-treatment of NaOH, 0% silica fume
additive and 350 Kg/m3 cement were best alternative. Najib Gerges ET. Al (2018) [7]in this
paper did an experimental study to check the effect of using recycled rubber powder as an
alternate fine aggregate in concrete mixes. Natural sand in the concrete mixes was partially
replaced by 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%. The results shown a decrease in the compressive strength
of concrete cylinders with increase in rubber content. The rubber concrete shows enhanced
energy absorption, concrete of compressive strength of 50 MPa shows better resilience than
conventional concrete.

3. MATERIAL AND METHODS:

The material used for experimental work is ordinary Portland cement (OPC) of grade 53, crushed sand
with a fineness modulus of 2.75, natural aggregates and rubber aggregates with a size ranges from 10
to 20 mm and Polycarboxylic ether type superplasticizer CHRYSO Delta G9311with specific Gravity
: 1.08 ± 0.02 and pH ≥ 6 (Figure 1).
 Figure 1. Polycarboxylic ether based superplasticizer CHRYSO Delta G9311

3.1 Tyre Rubber Aggregates: The rubber used in this research work is from the tread of a truck tyre
which is the part of the tyre that actually touches the road and is shown in figure 2.

Figure 2 .Rubber Chips

Mix proportion of the rubber concrete as shown in table 1 M35 grade concrete is used. The percentage
of replacement is done by volume. For each percentage three specimens of cubes size 150x150 x150
mm and for flexure strength slab of 700x150x150 mm are cast and tested after 7,14 and 28 days of
curing. The casted concrete cubes are shown in Figure 3.
 Figure 3. Concrete Cube
Table 1. Mix Proportion

Fine Coarse Aggregate W/C Admixture

Sr.No Mix Id Cement Aggregate (Kg/m3) Ratio (%)

Polycarboxylic
3 3 Gravel Rubber
(Kg/m ) (Kg/m ) Ether Super
plasticizer

1 CC 430 787 1184 00 0.4 0

2 UTRC 10 430 787 1065 119 0.4 0
3 430 787 948 237 0.4 0
UTRC 20
4 TRRC 5 430 787 1124 60 0.4 0.7

5 TRRC 20 430 787 1065 119 0.4 0.7

6 TRRC 15 430 787 1006 178 0.4 0.7
7 430 787 948 237 0.4 0.7
TRRC 20
CC: Conventional concrete
UTRC: Untreated rubberized concrete TRRC: Treated rubberized concrete

3.2 Pre-treatment of rubber:

Pre-treatment of rubber wastes implicates its surface modification to improve the adhesion between
rubber and the concrete components .The process was done by soaking rubber particles in 0.1 molar
solution of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) for 10 minutes. After that rubber was thoroughly washed until
pH becomes 7 as it essential to remove any remaining NaOH solution to prevent any negative effect on
durability of concrete. It was observed that soaking rubber in NaOH increased its pH up to 14. Procedure
of pre-treatment of rubber is shown in figure.4
 Step a) Soaking of rubber in NaOH Step b) Through washing of rubber

Step c) Checking of pH

Figure 4. Procedure of pre-treatment of rubber

4. RESULT AND ANALYSIS:

In this section, the effects of rubber pre-treatment on compressive strength and slump has been
discussed.

4.1 Effect on Compressive strength:

7 days compressive strength of TTRC-10 is found to be highest among all the replaced mixes but lower
than plain concrete. However 75.31% compressive strength of plain concrete is regained in this case.
Similarly, 28 days compressive strength is found to be highest for TTRC-10 but again lower than plain
concrete. It accounts for 72.06% compressive strength of the conventional normal concrete. For CC
ductile failure is observed. For UTRC 10 and TTRC10 elastic failure is observed i.e. when load is
applied to the specimen it absorbs more energy but after failure when the applied load was removed
due to rubber aggregates in concrete the cracks formed are recovered to some extent. For UTRC 10 and
TTRC10 transmission of crack is very fast. Cracks propagate nearly perpendicular to the direction of
the applied stress.

Table 2. Compressive strength

Sr.No
Mix Id Compressive Strength (N/mm2)

28Days
7Days 14Days

1 CC 23.5 31.3 35.8

2 UTRC 10 16.44 20.5 23.5
3 11.5 14.94 16.6
UTRC 20
4 TRRC 10 17.7 22.7 25.4
5 TRRC 20 10.8 13.77 15.33

Fig a. Conventional concrete Fig b. UTRC 10

Fig c. UTRC 20 Fig b. TTRC 10

Figure 5. Failure of concrete cubes

4.2 Effect on workability:

The workability of untreated concrete is found to be less than conventional concrete because of lack of
bonding of rubber chips and other concrete materials and improper hydration of cement. Workability
of treated concrete i.e. TRRC 10 is highest as shown fig 6a but for TRRC 20 slump collapsed as shown
in fig. 6 b because due to limitation of movement of concrete paste and natural aggregates by rubber
aggregates and due to improper bonding. While bonding is enhanced by NaOH treatment, decrease in
workability is due to increase in viscosity. Table 3.shows result of slump test.

Table 3. Slump test

Sr.No Mix Id Slump

1 CC 100
2 UTRC 10 20
3 UTRC 20 15
4 TRRC 10 150
5 TRRC 20 200
 a) b)
Figure 6. Slump test of TTRC 10 and TTRC 20

4. CONCLUSION:
1. It is observed NaOH treated rubberized concrete has 7.4 % more compressive strength as compared
to the untreated rubberized concrete. Even after rubber is given the surface treatment, only 72.06%
compressive strength of conventional concrete is regained.

2. Addition of polycarboxylic ether and NaOH treatment based super plasticizer helps to increase
workability.

3. Partial replacement of 10% of coarse aggregate has given optimum result as compared to all other
mixes i.e. UTRC10, UTRC20, TRRC10 and TTRC20

4. Even though in rubberized concrete there is slight decrease in compressive strength but it also has
competency of wide range of desirable properties, such as lower density and will also benefit to
environment.

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