Experimental and numerical evaluation of tire rubber powder effectiveness for reducing seepage rate in earth dams

Abstract Tires waste is an undesirable urban industry surplus that has grown worldwide yearly. Because of its seals, this material may be used in earth dams, one option for disposing of this waste. Since this is the main objective of this study, an experiment on a soil sample with various ratios of rubber powder has been conducted to better comprehend the impact of tire rubber powder (TRP) on the seepage rate in earthen dams. This study used physical and numerical models to investigate seepage through earth dams. Analysis indicates that the plotted seepage line in SEEP/W software was comparable to the observed seepage line in the physical model. TRP was tested at concentrations of 15, 30, and 50%. The research demonstrates that there has been a noticeable improvement in reducing the seepage rate through the dam’s body; seepage was decreased by 11.28% when a 15% ratio was adopted, a far smaller impact than the other percentages. The proportion was consequently raised to 30%. The seepage rate was found to be reduced by 35.6%, and TRP with a 50% ratio showed excellent behavior in lowering the water level (phreatic line) from the core point to the downstream face D/S and reducing the seepage rate by 41.5%, producing significantly better results. The findings in SEEP/W software indicate that the relative error in seepage rate varies, averaging 11.8% for the first model, 12.18% for the second, 1.65% for the third, and 7.63% for the fourth. The first and second physical models’ seepage rate (relative inaccuracy) dramatically increased as a result of the presence of piping.