Mechanical properties of blended-rubberized concrete

Recently, the disposal of waste tire rubber is no longer a non-common environmental problem, which is due to its non-biodegradable nature. Many works were done with regard to the utilization of crumb rubber from waste tires into concrete. In conjunction to deal with the disposal issues, this effort also preserving the natural sources of aggregate and producing a green sustainable concrete. In this study, the crumb rubber was used in the concrete containing metakaolin and it replaced fine aggregate content at 10% and 15%. The investigations were conducted on the mechanical properties of concrete like compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural strength and elastic modulus. The result showed reduction in mechanical properties is proportionate with the increment of crumb rubber. The bond between cement paste and rubber particles was found to be a factor affecting its strength. The finding indicated that the strength of blended-rubberized concrete decreased about 13% with increasing crumb rubber content from 10% to 15%. Thus, the study concluded that there was no significant strength reduction for rubberized concrete with increasing crumb rubber content (up to 15%). Furthermore, the compressive strength was complied to the minimum requirement for building structural application (25MPa). Thus, the blended-rubberized concrete has promising potential properties for the construction applications.