Experimental and modelling studies on high strength concrete containing waste tire rubber

Disposal of waste tire rubber has become a major environmental issue in all parts of the world. Every year millions of tires are discarded, thrown away or buried all over the world, representing a very serious threat to the ecology. A series of laboratory investigations were undertaken to evaluate the performance of concrete mixtures incorporating discarded tire rubber as aggregate. Numerous projects have been conducted to on the replacement of aggregates by crumb rubber, but scarce data are found in literature on high strength rubberized concrete. In this study, crumb rubber was partially substituted for fine aggregates from 0% to 20% in multiples of 2.5%. 6% silica fumes were added by weight of cement. The properties of concrete like compressive strength of sulphate attacked specimen, water absorption of sulphate attacked specimen, variation in weight of sulphate attacked specimen, macro cell current measurement, half cell potentials and modelling in Abacus was performed and the results were analyzed. The results showed that there was gradual decrease in the compressive strength of the specimens when compared to the control mix. Water absorption of sulphate attacked specimens showed a trend similar to that of the control mix. Macrocell corrosion and half cell potential measurements showed that there was no presence of corrosion. The analytical results from Abaqus followed the pattern of the results obtained from laboratory experiments.