Effect of pre-treated waste tire rubber on properties of concrete

Abstract

Abstract In present day scenario the human activities have led to environmental degradation with increased urbanization contributing to many fold increase in constructing activities, which uses limited natural resources. Therefore, prevention of resource over-utilization and recycling of the waste is of utmost priority in construction sector. Waste tires rubber is one such potential material which can be used in concrete as replacement for fine aggregates replacement. This study represents the effect of addition of crumb rubber in concrete as sand replacement ranging from 5-20% on volume basis. The study evaluated the workability, compressive strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), electrical resistivity and water permeability at 28 days. Tire rubber was also pre-treated with NaOH and KMnO4 as an effort to enhance its bonding characteristics. The contact angle was measure to test the efficacy of the treatment in reducing water hydrophobicity of crumb rubber. The treatment of tire rubber with NaOH and KMnO4 proved to be promising in regaining some of lost compressive strength and improved water permeability. However, both treatment processes didn’t have any significant effect on the workability. The NaOH treatment proved to be an overall better treatment than KMnO4 which was due to the reduced hydrophobicity as depicted by lower contact angle.