Potential of rubber aggregates to modify properties of cement based-mortars: Improvement in cracking shrinkage resistance

Cement-based materials suffer from their low tensile strength and poor strain capacity: they are sensitive to cracking, above all to shrinkage cracking. Enhancing the cracking resistance of cementitious materials is the objective of a broad ongoing research programme. In this regard, the aim of this work is the design of a cementitious composite exhibiting high strain capacity before localised cracking. It was assumed that the use of aggregates with low elastic modulus could be a solution. Rubber aggregates obtained from shredded non-reusable tyres were used, conferring an additional environmental interest on the study. As expected, results show that rubberised mortars exhibit a lower modulus of elasticity and have higher tensile capacity for deformation before macrocrack formation. However, there is one drawback: a decrease in the modulus of elasticity of a cement-based material is accompanied by a decrease in its strength. Results also confirm that rubber aggregate incorporation increases length change due to shrinkage. In contrast, ring-test results demonstrate that the strain capacity enhancement provided by rubber aggregate incorporation largely offsets the additional shrinkage length changes: shrinkage cracking is delayed and, when it occurs, the crack network exhibits thin crack openings which are less detrimental.