Compound soil-tyre chips modified by cement as a road construction material

Abstract

This research attempts to overcome the two problems of low-quality soil and a growing number of discarded tyres bymixing low-CBR soil with recycled tyre chips. The compound soil-tyre chips was then stabilised by Portland cement with theaim of using them as a new material in road construction in order to reduce the occurrence of shrinkage cracks. To achievethe purposes of this research three standard geotechnical testing programmes were employed: (1) modified compaction tests,(2) California Bearing Ratio tests (CBR), and (3) unconfined compression tests. The modified compaction test results provedthat for the mixtures having very low tyre chips and cement content, the behaviour is very complex. It was also observed thatthe greater the percentage of rubber added the lower the global density. However, this is predictable as the specific gravityof the rubber is much lower than that of the soil. For the relationship between the optimum moisture content (OMC) and thecement content, it was observed that there is no clear pattern.For the specimens having no cement added, the CBR for unsoaked specimens was observed to be greater than that forsoaked specimens. However, when the cement was introduced the CBR test showed that the resistance to penetration for thesoaked specimens was significantly greater, indicating the effects of cement added on the strength. In addition, it was foundthat the CBR values for both soaked and unsoaked specimens gradually increased with the increase of cement content.Lastly, the unconfined compressive strength progressively increased with the increased percentage of cement.

Keywords

• tyre chips
• cement stabilisation
• CBR
• shrinkage crack