DOI 10.

1007/s11204-015-9294-z
Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Vol. 51, No. 6, January, 2015 (Russian Original No. 6, November-December, 2014)

STRENGTH CHARACTERISTICS
OF TIRE-SAND MIXTURES

UDC 624.138.232
A. S. Soganci
Necmettin Erbakan Engineering University; and, Architectural
Faculty, Bera Bussiness Center, Konya, Turkey.

The effect of the content of tire crumb in a sandy soil, and the conditions under which its
mechanical properties are tested are investigated. It is established that the addition of
tire crumb improves the shear characteristics of sand due to an increase in the angle of
internal friction and resistance to shear.

The amount of tire wastes is increasing due to development in various branches of industry and
global population growth. In the United States, approximately 1.2 billion scrap tires have not been uti-
lized, leading to increased fire hazards, environmental damage, and growth in the number of disease-
carrying insects. Tire waste can be employed as a lightweight filler in retaining walls, and bridge abut-
ments for the creation of insulating and drainage layers [1], as well as for the building of highways. In
the United States, only 2% of scrap tires were recycled into rubber crumb in 1994, and 12% by 2001
[2]. Moreover, rubber crumb is probably the most complex and least studied method from the standpoint
of production and marketing [3].
According to ASTM D 6270 terminology, which is followed in this paper, rubber particles, the
size of which is less then 12 mm, are grouped with tire chips (12-50 mm particles), while particles of
more than 50 mm in size are grouped with tire shreds (50-305 mm) [4]. The physical properties of
sand-rubber mixes have been investigated in [5-8], from which it follows that the shear strength of sand
can be increased with use of shredded tire chips. For mixtures of dense sand containing 30% of rubber
chips, the angle of internal friction ϕ attains 65°.
Fosse et al. [9] cite results of large-sale direct-shear tests for a mixture of dry sand and tire
treads. They investigated the effect of normal stress, the density of the sand matrix, the content of
shredded tires, the lengths of the shreds and their orientation on the shear strength of the mixture. The
angle of internal for the sand reinforced with the shreds was 67°, whereas it was 34° for the non-rein-
forced sand of the same density.
Humphrey [10] demonstrates that in civil-engineering applications, use of tire chips (shavings) is
most suitable owing to their low density, high strength and thermal-insulating properties, as well as low
cost as compared with other fillers. Ghazvi and Sakhi [11] investigated the effect of the size of tire par-
ticles on the shear-strength parameters of reinforced sand. Shreds of different composition width and
aspect ratio were mixed with sands of different density. It was established that the angle of internal fric-
tion of the mixture is increased by use of an optimal shred-aspect ratio, and also by increasing the per-

Translated from Osnovaniya, Fundamenty i Mekhanika Gruntov, No. 6, pp. 25-27, November-December, 2014.
©
0038-0741/15/5106-0306 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York
306
 100
90
80
70

Content, wt. %
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Particle size, mm
Fig. 1. Grain-size distribution of Konya-egribayat sand.

cent content of rubber, and compaction of the mixture. Moreover, the percent content, width, aspect
ratio, compaction, and normal stress of the shreds influence the shear strength of the mixture. Attom
[12] investigated the strength of sand-tire mixtures under various conditions. Shredded rubber shavings
were passed through a sieve and mixed with four different percentages of shredded tires (10, 20, 30, and
40 dry-wt. %). Specimens were tested in direct shear at 95% relative compaction and the optimal water
content. The addition of shredded tire particles resulted in an increase in the angle of internal friction
and shear resistance. Vivek et al. [13] studied the effectiveness of embankments filled with tire shreds.
The performance of three embankments formed from a mixture of soil and shredded tires wrapped in a
geotextile, and a normal reference embankment was investigated. It is established that under the climat-
ic conditions of El Paso, these embankments have little effect on the environment, and the methods
employed for their construction minimized settlements as compared with previous observations.
Edinzlier and Ayhan [14] tested the effectiveness of a combination of two types of tire waste
(tire crumbs and a fibrous product of tire buffing) in two proportions with sand particles. Tire buffing is
a by-product of the tire-trimming process, and is formed from fibers of various lengths and shapes. The
influence exerted by normal stress, types of tire waste, and proportions and shapes of particles on shear
strength was investigated.
Cabalar [15] indicated that when fine Ceyhan and coarse Leighton Buzzard sands are mixed with
5, 10, 20, and 50% of shredded rubber, the shear strength and angle of internal friction of the mixture
are slightly reduced when the content of rubber particles is increased to 10%. For the Ceyhan sand,
these values remain constant when the rubber content is greater than 10%. This was not observed, for
mixtures of the Leighton Buzzard sand.
Ghazavi et al. [16] determined the interface shear strength for a tire-sand mixture reinforced with
a geogrid. Specimens were prepared in ratios of 0:100, 15:85, 25:75, 30:70, 35:65, and 100:0 with
respect to the volume of the fillers. The peak angle of friction of the sand was 30.2°. The shear strength
and angle of internal friction were increased by up to 30% with increasing content of tire shreds. The
effect of the ratio of the percent content of tire wastes on the strength of the sand was investigated, and
the ultimate shear strength and parameters of the deformation behavior of tire-sand mixtures containing
different weights of crumb were measured.
Konya-egribayat sand and shredded tire crumb were used in this study. The content of sand par-
ticles was 96.6%, the content of slime and clay 3.4%, maximum density in the dry state 15.79 kN/m 3,
optimal water content 14.4%, specific weight 2.66 g/m 3, coefficient of uniformity 3.2, and curvature
1.1. The specific weight and grain-size distribution were determined in accordance with the American
Society for Testing of Materials (ASTM). The distribution of sand-grain sizes is indicated in Fig. 1.
The tire crumb (1-3 mm) was supplied by a company in the city of Konya, and was free of metallic
particles.

307
a τ, kPa b τ, kPa c τ, kPa
150 250 500 4
3 4 450 3
4 5
200 400
2
3 350
100 2 5
150 1 300 1
2 5 250
1
100 200
50 150 6
6 6
50 100
50
0 0 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 1 2 3 4 5
horizontal displacement, mm horizontal displacement, mm horizontal displacement, mm
Fig. 2. Tangential stress due to horizontal displacement under normal stresses; a, b, c) 100, 200,
and 400 kPa; 1-6) 0, 5, 10, 20, 30, and 100% tire crumb, respectively.

τ, kPa 50
4
45
40 3
35 2
5 1
30
25
20
6
15
10
5
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 σ
Fig. 3. Dependence of normal σ and tangential τ stresses on percent fraction of tire crumb for
Konya-egribayat sand: 1-6) 0, 5, 10, 20, 30, and 100%, respectively.

ϕ° 50
45
40
35
30
25
20
0 20 40 60 80 100
% content of tire crumb
Fig. 4. Dependence of angle of internal friction on percent content of tire crumb.

Direct-shear tests were conducted on pure sand in conformity with ASTM D-3080 under normal
stresses of 100, 200, and 400 kPa. The sand was mixed with 5, 10, 20, and 30% of tire crumb at a 95%-
relative compaction and the optimal water content. The size of the shear zone was 66 cm.
Maximum shear strength was realized with the addition of 20% crumb. It is apparent from
Fig. 2 that the shear strength for the tire-sand mixtures is higher than that of the pure sand. Under low
vertical stresses, the addition of just 5% crumb increases the shear-strength indicators. Figure 3 indicates
the variation in the tangential stress due to the normal load for different percent contents of sand and
tire crumb. The shear resistance is increased by up to 20% with increasing percent content of crumb,
and then gradually diminishes (see Table 1). Figure 4 shows the dependence of the angle of friction on
the percent content of crumb. Addition of crumb to the sand increases the angle of friction from 40.4 to
47.07°.

308
 TABLE 1
Material Strength indicators
100% tire crumb c = 3.5 kPa; ϕ = 24.3°
100% sand c = 0 kPa; ϕ = 40.4°
95% sand + 5% tire crumb c = 1.5 kPa; ϕ = 42.1°
90% sand + 10% tire crumb c = 4.5 kPa; ϕ = 45.6°
80% sand + 20% tire crumb c = 7 kPa; ϕ = 47.1°
70% sand + 30% tire crumb c = 3 kPa; ϕ = 42.8°

Conclusions
Results of laboratory investigations indicated that addition of tire crumb to sand increases the
angle of internal friction and shear strength for all percent contents investigated. Tire crumb acts as a
reinforcing material, improving frictional resistance between the tire and sand. The shear resistance of
the mixture is greater than that in the sand alone, and for a crumb content of up to 20 wt.%, the angle
of internal friction increases to 47.07°.
Replacement of in-situ materials by production wastes to improve the quality of the material will
help to preserve natural resources, and substantially lower utilization costs and potential environment
pollution.

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