Journal of Molecular Structure 1234 (2021) 130110

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Journal of Molecular Structure

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/molstr

Influence of UV-modified GTR on the properties of interlocking

concrete paving units
Mostafa Galal Aboelkheir a, Sabu Thomas b, Fernando Gomes de Souza Jr c,d,∗, Romildo Dias
Toledo Filho e, Roberta Celestino a, Sérgio Thode Filho c,f, Fernanda Veloso de Carvalho c,
Fabíola da Silveira Maranhão c, Emiliane Daher Pereira c, Vitor Corrêa da Costa c,
Nathali Ricardo Barbosa de Lima c
a
Programa de Engenharia Civil, Universidade São Judas Tadeu, Rua Taquari, 546 - Mooca, São Paulo, SP 03166-000, Brazil
b
International and Inter-University Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, School of Energy Materials, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala
686560, India
c
Institute of Macromolecules Professor Eloisa Mano, CT, Av. Horácio Macedo, 2030, bloco J, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 21941-598, Brazil
d
Programa de Engenharia da Nanotecnologia, COPPE, Centro de Tecnologia-Cidade Universitária, av. Horacio Macedo, 2030, bloco I. Universidade Federal de
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
e
Programa de Engenharia Civil, COPPE, Centro de Tecnologia-Cidade Universitária, av. Horacio Macedo, 2030, bloco B. Universidade Federal de Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil
f
Laboratório Multidisciplinar de Gerenciamento de Resíduos, Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio de Janeiro, Av. República do
Paraguai, 120-Vila Sarapui, Duque de Caxias, RJ 25050-100, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This work studies the impact of tire rubber on interlocking concrete paving units for application in roads
Received 3 December 2020 or storage areas by adding ground tire rubber (GTR) as a treated and recycled aggregate. The rubberized
Revised 29 January 2021
concretes are fabricated by replacing the fine aggregate with GTR in 5, 10, 15, and 20% (V/V). The com-
Accepted 9 February 2021
pressive strength decreased by 56.03% after replacing 20% of the fine aggregate by GTR. The replacement
Available online 18 February 2021
of the GTR did not exhibit a significant change in the water absorption values that increased only 0.85%
Keywords: when replacing up to 20% of GTR in the concrete and the resultant impact resistance increased by more
Rubberized concrete than 360% if compared to the conventional concrete. Combining the beneficial and potential environmen-
Cement composites tal impact of finding new destinations of GTR with the outstanding enhancement of the impact resistance
UV devulcanization of GTR-modified concretes highlights this type of material as a promising recycled aggregate in pavement
Ground tire rubber and even structural applications that require this property.
© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction ing material with some exciting applications in the construction

Discarded tires represent serious problems such as a slow
degradation rate due to the cross-linked structure and use of sta-
bilizers and additives [1–3]. Governments and environmental or-
ganizations are concerned with this problem, and many efforts are
made to control it. In 2016, the Brazilian authorities launched a na-
tional campaign to collect inappropriately discarded tires. The Eu-
ropean Union (EU) policies on the Landfilling of Waste (Council Di-
rective 1999/31/EC) have banned tires in landfills, and likewise in
Brazil, the legislation is becoming more severe trying to solve the
illegal tire discard problem [4,5]. The crumb rubber is a promis-
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: fgsj@ufrj.br, fernando_gomes@ima.ufrj.br (F. Gomes de Souza
Jr).
industry for its lightness, elasticity, the absorption capacity of en-
ergy, and acoustic and thermal insulation [3,6–9]. Rubber residues
can be recycled through a material, energy, or chemical and bio-
logical recovery, where the elastomer is devulcanized, or physical
recovery, where the structure of the three-dimensional network is
transformed into small fragments [10–13].
The use of recycled rubber in Portland cement concrete is not
technically successful as in asphalt mixtures due to the incompat-
ibility issues caused by chemical composition and stiffness. Mean-
while, some authors are intended to perform some rubber mate-
rial treatments [14–16] to enhance the interfacial adhesion with
cement hydration products and reduce or eliminate the adverse
effects while keeping the beneficial effects of waste rubber as an
aggregate [4,8,17–19].

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molstruc.2021.130110
0022-2860/© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
M.G. Aboelkheir, S. Thomas, F. Gomes de Souza Jr et al. Journal of Molecular Structure 1234 (2021) 130110

The compressive strength is affected negatively by adding rub- Table 1

Chemical composition of the fine particles.
ber aggregate to the cement matrix as a partial or full replacement
of the conventional aggregates, and at the same time, the elastic Cement CPP G Class
modulus tends to decrease, highlighting the higher ductility of the Substance CaO SiO2 Fe2 O3 SO3 Al2 O3 Sc2 O3 K2 O
Content (%) 67.95 16.35 5.49 3.89 3.64 1.61 0.52
new mixture [8,20–23]. On the other hand, rubberized concrete
Silica
strength may be improved by improving rubber aggregates’ bond Substance SiO2 SO3 TiO2 CaO Fe2 O3 Sm2 O3 ZnO
properties. Some studies highlighted this possibility by pretreating Content (%) 94.83 2.13 1.48 0.96 0.38 0.15 0.03
the rubber by immersion in NaOH’s alkaline solution or in a sulfur- Ground Tire Rubber
based petroleum residue (CS2 ) [9,24–27]. Besides, the rubber ma- Substance SO3 ZnO SiO2 CaO Br P2 O5 Fe2 O3
Content (%) 35.94 33.51 20.98 3.04 1.67 1.66 1.57
terial has a very high capacity for dissipating energy. Thus, rubber-
ized concrete products may be suitable for the architectural appli-
cation, false facades, stone baking, interior construction, in building
as an earthquake shock wave absorber where resistance to impact and superplasticizer to cement ratios (0.49 and 0.006, respec-
or explosion is required and as roof top surfaces for insulation and tively), while the fine aggregate to coarse aggregate ratio varies as
waterproofing [7,17,28–30]. per replacing the silica by the GTR. The dry fine and coarse aggre-
This research calls the attention to the possibility of applying gates were mixed first for 1 min, and then half of the water was
environmentally friendly mean of surface modifications to the tire added and were mixed again for one more minute. After resting for
powder instead of using chemical reagents which are considered 2 min, the cement was added, and all the components were mixed
harmful to the environment as they increase the level of toxicity with the superplasticizer. Then the rest of the water until reaching
generally, beside the hard work of recovering and treating the re- the right consistency. The rubberized concrete was prepared by the
lated discard, lately. Moreover, the main gain of reusing the dis- GTR being dry mixed for 1 min with the cement. Then, both were
carded tires, after applying the devulcanization step, is the basis of added to the mixture.
the novelty of this work. The paving units’ specimens were cast in PVC molds with the
This work research studies the impact of tire rubber on in- dimensions of 200 × 100 × 60 mm; thus, the shape index is less
terlocking concrete paving units’ properties for the application in than four as required by ABNT NBR-7981. The specimens were then
roads, where vehicles pass through, or in storage areas, by adding placed on a vibration table for the 60 s to achieve proper and con-
the GTR as a treated and recycled aggregate. The rubberized con- sistent compaction and finally were kept in a fog chamber with a
cretes are fabricated by replacing the fine aggregate with GTR in 5, relative humidity of 95% until removing them from the PVC molds
10, 15, and 20% (V/V). after 48 h. Before performing the planned tests, the total curing
period was 28 days, and then the prism/block specimens were pre-
2. Experimental pared to be tested as recommended by ABNT NBR-7981.
Likewise, the concrete mixes assigned to the drop weight im-
The mechanical properties of five concrete mixtures, without pact test were cast in metal cylinder molds with 150 mm of diam-
and with UV-treated GTR added by 0, 5, 10, 15, and 20% of vol- eter and 300 mm of height and then placed on a vibration table for
ume substitution by the fine aggregate, were studied. Each mix the 60 s. Finally, the specimens were kept in a fog chamber with
was given a code according to the ground tire rubber (GTR) quan- a relative humidity of 95% until removing them from the metal
tity incorporated inside as GTR0, GTR5, GTR10, GTR15, and GTR20. molds after 24 h. After a curing time of 28 days, these cylindrical
The specimens were investigated for their compressive strength specimens were cut into five specimens each, totalizing 25 units,
at room temperature, water absorption, and dimensional measure- and then prepared as recommended by the drop weight test pro-
ment. The impact resistance of the specimens was examined, as cedures.
well.

2.1. Materials 2.2.2. Exposure of the rubber aggregate to UV irradiation

In this work, Portland cement CPP class G (Holcim-Brazil) with
a specific gravity of 3.14 g/cm3 , according to ABNT NBR 9831-
Brazilian Standard was used as the only binder. Silica with a di-
ameter equals to 120 mesh and a specific gravity of 2.667 g/cm3
was used as the fine aggregate while a crushed stone, with a
nominal diameter ranging between 4.75 mm and 9.5 mm and a
specific gravity of 2.67 g/cm3 , was used as the coarse aggregate.
Ground tire rubber (Genan-Denmark) with a diameter equals to
120 mesh and a specific gravity of 1.18 g/cm3 was used replac-
ing the silica as a fine aggregate. The chemical composition of
the fine particles is shown in Table 1. The UV chamber was de-
signed and created at our lab and the UV lamp, GERMICIDA 25 W -
GPH846T5VH/HO/4PSE (185 nm - UV-BRAVO), was purchased from
Bravoluz - Lâmpadas Especiais (Curitiba-Brazil). The used water
was deionized.
2.2. Methods
2.2.1. Mix design, casting and curing
The mix proportions (wt/wt) were cement: fine aggregate:
coarse aggregate: water = 1:1.43:2.55:0.49 with constant water
Elastomers undergo significant modifications by exposing them
to heat, light, and oxygen (ozone). Physical recovery processes of
rubber wastes are applied with the help of external energy. Thus,
the three-dimensional cross-linked rubber network is broken down
(i.e., devulcanization) and, meanwhile, new bonds are formed in-
troducing polar functional groups, like OH- and S=O, onto the
chemical structure of the polymeric chains, which enhances the
wettability properties of the rubber particles if compared to the
non-treated rubber particles. The Fourier-transform Infrared Spec-
troscopy (FTIR) revealed that the leading polymeric chains suffer
a degradative effect by the UV treatment and the devulcanization
phenomenon. Thus, the exposure time was limited to 3 h to keep
the treated rubber samples’ good mechanical properties. This kind
of treatment may enhance the applicability of non-polar materials
like GTR in polar matrices by enhancing the rubber particles’ dis-
persion in the cement suspension system.
The GTR was added to the concrete mixes only after its expo-
sure to UV irradiation. The rubber was placed into a UV irradiation
chamber, made at our laboratory for 3 h under the power of 25 W,
equivalent to 27 kJ/g of UV applied specific energy. The samples
were located at 7 cm distant from the irradiation source. The UV
applied specific energy resultant from the exposure time of 3 h

2
M.G. Aboelkheir, S. Thomas, F. Gomes de Souza Jr et al.
Fig. 1. Compression test setup.
was calculated based on Eq. (1):
P.t
E= (1)
m
where E is UV specific energy (kJ/g), P is the power of the emis-
sion (W), t is the exposure time to UV irradiation (s) and m is the
weight of the sample (g).
2.2.3. Compressive strength
The specimens were tested according to the Brazilian standard
ABNT NBR-9781 until the failure happened. The assays were per-
formed using Shimadzu hydraulic universal testing machine (UH-F
10 0 0 KN) with a constant loading speed of 550±200 KPa/s. Two
steel plates were placed centralized over and under the specimen
during the test (see Fig. 1). The final compressive strength value
should be multiplicated by a correcting factor (p) equals to 0.95 as
the thickness of the tested specimen in this case equals to 60 mm.
2.2.4. Water absorption
The water adsorption (%) increases in a solid and porous spec-
imen due to the water penetration into its pores divided by its
mass when dried. The masses of the dried specimen (m1 ) and wet
specimen (m2 ) were registered following the recommendations of
the Brazilian standard ABNT NBR-9781. Eq. (2) was applied to cal-
culate the water absorption values.
m2 − m1
A= x100 (2)
m1
where A is the water absorption (%), m1 and m2 are the dried and
wet specimen masses (g), respectively.
2.2.5. Drop weight impact test
This test determines the different concrete mixes’ different be-
haviors upon impacting their specimens by a drop hammer at a
known height, which may help predict other basic impact prop-
erties [31]. This assay’s procedures were set first by ACI 544.2R-
89, but the obtained results following the recommendations of this
standard presented a significant high coefficient of variation (CoV)
that registered in some cases > 60% of results’ variation. Some au-
thors suggested some modifications to the test method [32,33] to
achieve a lower dispersion of results. Due to the significant big
number of impacts required until the rubberized specimens’ fail-
ure, the test setup was modified to facilitate the test execution due
to the presence of a magnet and guiding rails of the drop ham-
mer. The disk specimens were prepared following the procedures
of Badr and Ashour [32].
Each specimen had a diameter of 150 mm, a thickness of
50 mm, and two 25 mm triangular notches at the end of its di-
ameter (see Fig. 2a). The specimen was positioned on a horizontal
steel plate, and a steel washer with a concaved upper surface was
3
Journal of Molecular Structure 1234 (2021) 130110
placed onto its center (see Fig. 2b) to keep the steel ball (1.2 kg)
stable and guarantee a more representative area being impacted
instead of one point only. The drop hammer (4.5 kg) was then re-
peatedly dropped from a vertical height of 200 mm until the speci-
men was split into two separate halves. The specimen with a prop-
agating cracking through its diameter passing by the notches was
considered accepted. The drop hammer’s energy at its point of im-
pact is known as gravitational potential energy and can be calcu-
lated following Eq. (3).
IE = n.m.g.h (3)
where IE is the impact energy (Joule=kg.m2 .s−2 ), n is the number
of blows required to split the specimen, m is the drop hammer
mass (kg), g is the acceleration due to gravity (m.s−2 ) and h is the
height from which the hammer is dropped.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Compressive strength
It can be observed that by increasing the GTR content in the
concrete, the compressive strength values tend to decrease. By ap-
plying 5, 10, 15, and 20% of GTR as fine aggregate, the compressive
strength decreased by 66.83, 64.11, 63.63, and 56.03%, respectively.
The treated GTR particles should have had enhanced bonding with
the cement hydration products, but this enhanced bonding seems
to be very limited. The strength reductions are attributed to vari-
ous factors, including the bad interfacial adhesion of GTR and ce-
ment hydration products and the lower stiffness of rubber particles
compared to normal aggregates that decrease the whole concrete
stiffness leading to faster rupture.
Fig. 3 shows the GTR content’s effect on concrete paving units’
compressive strength after 28 days. By increasing the GTR con-
tent in the concrete, the compressive strength values tend to de-
crease. According to the Brazilian standard ABNT NBR-9781, the
paving units intended to be applied in pedestrians, light vehicles,
or commercial vehicles environments should exhibit a compressive
strength ≥ 35 MPa at 28 days of curing, while the ones applied in
select vehicles environment should present a compressive strength
≥ 50 MPa at 28 days of curing. Despite the strength reductions, all
the studied mixes of the current mix design, including rubberized
concrete paving units, can be applied in pedestrians, light vehicles,
or commercial vehicles environments as all of the rubberized mix-
tures exhibited compressive strengths > 35 MPa. Meanwhile, only
the reference sample, GTR0, can be applied in select vehicle en-
vironments. It was the only to achieve a compressive strength >
50 MPa.
M.G. Aboelkheir, S. Thomas, F. Gomes de Souza Jr et al. Journal of Molecular Structure 1234 (2021) 130110

Fig. 2. Drop weight impact test: (a) the tested specimen and (b) test setup.

Table 2
Water absorption of conventional and rubberized concrete
paving units.

Mix code Water absorption (%) CoV (%) Error (95%)

GTR0 4.31 5.21 0.31

GTR5 4.89 8.02 0.53
GTR10 4.38 3.93 0.23
GTR15 5.16 6.79 0.48
GTR20 4.59 2.39 0.15

to ABNT NBR-9781, the WA values of concrete paving units should

not exceed 6% (see Table 2). Thus, all the studied specimens were
approved concerning the WA quality test. The small increase in the
WA of the rubberized concrete for the conventional one is consis-
tent with the results of other authors who applied up to 20% of
rubber aggregate [20,34].

3.3. Drop weight impact test

As mentioned before, some authors suggested modifications to

Fig. 3. Influence of GTR on the compressive strengths of conventional and rubber-
ized concrete paving units.
3.2. Water absorption
The measured water absorption (WA) values are 4.31, 4.89, 4.38,
5.16, and 4.59% for the mixes GTR0, GTR5, GTR10, GTR15, and
GTR20, respectively. The replacement of the GTR did not exhibit
a significant increase in the WA values. This may be attributed to
the low water swelling values of the vulcanized rubber. According
the drop weight impact test to enhance the obtained results, in-
cluding the respected coefficients of variation (CoVs). CoVs are
then continuously monitored by the authors to achieve lower val-
ues as it represents a robust tool of impact test quality control.
Table 3 exhibits the impact resistance and the absorbed impact
energy by the rubberized concrete paving units, where both in-
creased up to 1.70, 1.69, 3.48, and 4.61 times for the mixes GTR5,
GTR10, GTR15, and GTR20, respectively, if compared to the conven-
tional concrete specimens. The respected COVs are relatively low,
except for the mixes GTR5 and GTR10, considering that the results
are based on five specimen assessment.
Fig. 4a shows GTR content’s effect on the impact resistance and
the impact absorbed energy of concrete paving units after 28 days

4
M.G. Aboelkheir, S. Thomas, F. Gomes de Souza Jr et al. Journal of Molecular Structure 1234 (2021) 130110

Fig. 4. (a) Influence of GTR on the impact resistance and energy of conventional and rubberized concrete paving units, (b) Required blows to cause a complete specimen
split after the first visible crack.

Table 3
Impact resistance and impact absorbed energy of conventional and rub-
berized concrete paving units.

Mix code Impact resistance (blows) CV (%) Impact energy (J)

GTR0 13.92 20.60 122.76

GTR5 23.71 40.54 209.10
GTR10 23.63 42.32 208.45
GTR15 48.47 15.38 427.46
GTR20 64.14 17.22 565.68

by presenting the total blows of a drop hammer of known mass to

split the specimen into two separate halves. The fitted linear mod-
eling exhibits a high correlation coefficient (R2 =0.9054), which in-
dicates a strong correlation between the GTR content and the im-
pact of resistance and energy. Thus, the higher the GTR content in
the concrete, the higher its impact resistance and the chance to
absorb impact energy until its failure. Undoubtedly, the newly ac-
quired properties are directly linked to the use of GTR as an aggre-
gate due to the high tan delta, which means that it dissipates en-
ergy and serves as a spring. Thus, the GTR tends to respond to the
applied stress, represented in impact blows, slowly, i.e., it tends to
transfer this stress to the existing aggregates and hydration prod- Fig. 5. Failure modes of the conventional and rubberized concrete specimens after
ucts at a slow rate, which delays the crack initiation propagation the drop weight impact test.

within the specimen [35].

All the studied specimens of conventional and rubberized con-
crete exhibited very close values of impact blows until the first vis-
ible crack appeared, which may be attributed to the matrix itself
despite a slight increase in the case of GTR15 and GTR20. Mean-
while, the number of required blows to cause a complete speci-
men splitting increased significantly by increasing the GTR content.
The reference specimens, GTR0, required an average of 3.6 blows
to split entirely after the first crack. Using 5, 10, 15, and 20% of
GTR increased this average of blows to 13.2, 21.9, 35.5, and 49.6
blows, respectively (see Fig. 4b). Fig. 5 shows the failure modes of
the conventional and rubberized concrete specimens.
Many authors are trying to find innovative solutions to keep the
compressive strength of rubberized concrete as it tends to decrease
drastically by increasing the rubber content [2,9,23,25,27,35–40].
On the other hand, the rubber material, including GTR, offers
unique properties that contribute progressively to solving differ-
ent engineering problems. This was illustrated by comparing the
rubberized concrete’s impact resistance with the conventional one,
which is considered a strong potential to applications subjected to
impact, including pavements and dynamic and seismic loads.
The UV-treatment of the GTR tends to devulcanize the rubber
3-dimensional system allowing the chains to get back into a more
relaxed state as illustrated in Fig. 6. The resultant impact resistance
from replacing 20% of fine aggregate in the current work, totalizing
55 kg/m3 , is more excellent 360% than the conventional concrete.
This result is even higher than the found values in the literature.
Recent work reported an impact resistance resultant from replac-

5
M.G. Aboelkheir, S. Thomas, F. Gomes de Souza Jr et al.
Fig. 6. Schematization of the vulcanization/devulcanization process: (a) non-
vulcanized rubber, (b) vulcanized rubber and (c) devulcanized rubber.
ing fine aggregate with 20% of rubber crumb, totalizing 57.2 kg/m3 ,
and it was found to be greater only 91% than the conventional con-
crete. [35]. Reference concretes were dosed to exhibit compressive
strengths around 65 MPa.
4. Conclusions
The compressive strength decreased by 56.03% after replacing
20% of the fine aggregate with ground tire rubber (GTR). The re-
placement of the GTR did not exhibit a significant change in the
water absorption values, which is acceptable for the durability esti-
mation. The resultant impact resistance from replacing 20% of fine
aggregate with ground tire rubber (GTR) increased by more than
360% if compared to conventional concrete. Combining the ben-
eficial and potential environmental impact of finding new desti-
nations of GTR with the outstanding enhancement of the impact
resistance of GTR-modified concretes highlights this type of mate-
rial as promising recycled aggregate in many pavements and even
structural applications that require this property.
6
Journal of Molecular Structure 1234 (2021) 130110
Finally, the rubberized concrete can be highlighted for its po-
tential acting as a cushion due to its high impact resistance. It can
be suitable also for architectural application, false facades, stone
baking, interior construction, in building as an earthquake cushion
and in ballistic resistance applications as well. Besides, rubberized
concrete offers lightness, elasticity, absorption capacity of energy,
and acoustic and thermal insulation.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Mostafa Galal Aboelkheir: Conceptualization, Methodology,
Data curation, Writing - original draft. Sabu Thomas: Conceptu-
alization, Supervision. Fernando Gomes de Souza Jr: Conceptu-
alization, Supervision, Writing - review & editing. Romildo Dias
Toledo Filho: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing - review &
editing. Roberta Celestino: Data curation. Sérgio Thode Filho:
Writing - review & editing, Validation. Fernanda Veloso de Car-
valho: Data curation, Writing - review & editing. Fabíola da Sil-
veira Maranhão: Writing - review & editing, Validation. Emiliane
Daher Pereira: Writing - review & editing. Vitor Corrêa da Costa:
Writing - review & editing. Nathali Ricardo Barbosa de Lima: Data
curation.
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