EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON UTILIZATION OF WASTE RUBBER TIRES AS FILLER IN CONCRETE

This work has been carried out to evaluate the potential usage of waste rubber tires in concrete. Disposal of tires is a major problem and their accumulation create health and fire hazards. To incorporate waste rubber tires in construction industry is considered as a sustainable and environment friendly solution. Experiments were designed by incorporating coarse and fine rubber content as partial substitution of conventional aggregates. Seven mixtures were proportioned; one mixture with conventional aggregates was the control specimen, three mixtures were casted by replacing fine aggregate by waste rubber tires powder and remaining three were proportioned by replacing coarse aggregate by waste rubber tires chips. Fresh and hardened properties of rubberized concrete were evaluated and compared with the control specimen. The results showed that there was significant fall in workability of rubberized concrete along with slight deviation in the density and aesthetics as compared to control specimen. The compressive strength of rubberized concrete was found to be augmented when 10 % fine crumb rubber content was used. However with further increase in the rubber content, the compressive strength was abridged. On the contrary, there was continuous reduction in the compressive strength with the increase in the amount of coarse rubber content as compared to control specimen. It was verified that rubberized concrete have potential to use in concrete up to some extent.