Effectiveness of crumb rubber for subgrade soil stabilization

Abstract

Abstract The properties of subgrade soil are important in the pavement design as its main function is to support the load transmitted from overlying pavement layers. Subgrade must have sufficient strength and stability even under bad traffic and climate conditions. Soil with good qualities should be used as subgrade but not all soil possesses the required abilities as there are some locations that have poor qualities of in-situ soil. The stabilization of soil can be used to improve the poor subgrade; hence it may reduce the thickness of pavement design and also increase life of the pavement. In this study, soil stabilization using crumb rubber is the alteration of subgrade soil as the properties of crumb rubber are lightweight and high shear strength. Moreover, it can also reduce the improper tyre’s disposal problem and pollutions. The soil used are collected from a landslide site located near to Mengkuang Dam in Seberang Perai Tengah, Penang in order to investigate the performance of subgrade soil stabilized with 2%, 4%, 6% and 8% of Crumb Rubber (CR). A series of laboratory testing of unsoaked and soaked (4 days) California Bearing Ratio (CBR) test have been performed to evaluate the best percentage of CR which fulfilled the JKR specification for subgrade. The results show that all mixtures; M2 (2% CR), M3 (4% CR), M4 (6% CR), and M5 (8% CR) are fulfilled the subgrade requirement according to the Public Works Department Malaysia (JKR) standard specification for road works where the CBR value must achieve more than 5%. The mixture with 4% CR (M3) shows the highest unsoaked and soaked CBR values, thus, the 4% CR is recommended to be implemented for subgrade soil stabilization.