International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Research Technology (IJEART)
ISSN: 2454-9290, Volume-3, Issue-5, May 2017
Behaviour of Clayey Soil Mixed With Randomly
Distributed Rubber Tyre Waste
Rajib Ghosh, Joyanta Maity
Abstract Large construction of various Civil Engineering cost by providing lesser thickness of pavement results lesser
schemes demands optimum and efficient use of construction quantity of materials. Making use of scrap tyres in subgrade
resources. Requirement of fill material for large-scale improvement is not only a beneficial approach for reducing
constructional activities of roads, is enormous and available soils
near construction sites are weak in strength and of high
environmental pollution but also is economically efficient.
compressibility. This type of low strength soils need addition of Waste rubber tyres are light materials in road construction
some strengthening elements to increase their strength and projects, fences behind the retaining walls, landfill drainage
reduce their high compressible nature. On the other hand, the and thermal insulator. These rubber tyre materials have
uses of motor vehicles are increasing in everywhere in an specific characteristics that enhance the quality of
extreme rate. The application of waste rubber tyre in soil results geotechnical projects. Their most noticeable characteristics
increase in strength and decrease of deformability. Such
application will reduce the cost by providing lesser thickness of
are durability, strength, lightness, compaction, drainage, and
pavement results lesser quantity of materials. high frictional resistance.
In this paper waste rubber tyre has been randomly mixed at In this present study for the utilization of waste rubber tyre,
varying length and percentage with weak clayey soil to improve a systematic experimental program is made on locally
the strength and decrease the deformability of soil. Standard available weak clayey soil mixing with different percentages
Proctor test and California Bearing Ratio test have been and sizes of waste rubber tyre.
conducted for each combination of soil- rubber tyre chips mix
combination to study the behaviour of the engineering
properties of soil- rubber tyre chips mix combination. From the II. PROPOSED INVESTIGATION
test results, it was observed that with the increase in percentage
of waste tyre chips in soils, maximum dry density decreases A. Materials Used
whereas optimum moisture content remains almost constant. Natural Soil: The present investigation has been carried
Further, the CBR value of the soil- rubber tyre chips mix out on soil collected from local area of Habra, North 24
composite at OMC, increased with increase in percentage of Parganas at a depth of 1.0 m below the ground surface
waste tyre-tube chips.
(Fig.1). It is classified as CL as per IS classification. The
properties of soil as tested in the laboratory are given in
Index Terms Waste rubber tyre, deformability, Standard
proctor test. Table 1.
I. INTRODUCTION
India is a developing country, it proposes multipurpose
development projects. Large construction of roads, bridges,
dams, irrigation schemes, public health engineering schemes,
educational buildings and residential buildings etc. all these
construction schemes demand optimum and efficient use of
construction resources. Due to large-scale constructional
activities of roads in India, requirement of fill material is
enormous and available soils near construction sites are weak Figure 1: Natural soil
in strength and of high compressibility, even after proper
compaction. Such soils need addition of some strengthening
elements to increase the strength of weak soil. On the other
hand, the uses of motor vehicles are increasing in everywhere
in an unprecedented rate. Huge amount of scrap or waste
rubber tyre constitute environmental and health hazards by
producing air pollution from rubber tyre fires and breeding
grounds for potential disease carrying mosquitoes and vermin.
Also scrap tyre does not decompose easily. Disposal of waste Figure 2: Waste rubber tyre
rubber tyre are environmental dilemma. In this situation a safe
waste rubber tyre disposal system is essential. The application Waste Rubber Tyre: Waste rubber tyres are collected from
of waste rubber tyre in soil results increase in strength and the tyre recycling shop. These tyres are being cut into three
decrease of deformability. Such application will reduce the different pieces of 4cm x 1cm, 2cm x 1cm and 1cm x 1cm.
The thickness of tyre is varying from 0.1 to 0.9cm (Fig. 2).
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Behaviour of Clayey Soil Mixed With Randomly Distributed Rubber Tyre Waste
Table 1: Physical properties of soil has been mixed with randomly distributed waste rubber tyre
Properties Values of varying percentages of 1%, 3%, 5%, 7% and 9% and
IS Classification CL varying lengths of 1cm, 2cm, and 4cm. The OMC and MDD
Specific Gravity 2.3 values obtained from the standard Proctor test are given in
Liquid Limit 31.23% table 2 and the variation of MDD and OMC with percentage
Plastic Limit 22.1% of waste tyre tube chips are shown in fig. 3 and 4 respectively.
Plasticity Index 9.13% From these figures, it is observed that with the increase in
Gravel 0.44% percentage of waste rubber tyre chips, the MDD value of
Clay 11% clayey soil- waste rubber tyre chips mix composites decreases
Silt 86.84% whereas OMC value remain almost constant. The decrease in
Sand 1.71% MDD is due to the light weight nature of rubber tyre in
Cu 8.5 comparison with soil.
Cc 1.89
Maximum Dry Density 1.742 gm/cc
Optimum Moisture Content 16.7%
CBR 4.8%
B. Test Programme
In this study to investigate the effect of inclusion of waste
rubber tyre chips on compaction and strength characteristics
of locally available clayey soil, standard Proctor test and
unsoaked California Bearing Ratio test have been conducted
for clayey soil mixed with randomly distributed waste rubber
tyre chips of varying percentages of 1%, 3%, 5%, 7% & 9%
and varying lengths of 1cm, 2cm, and 4cm. All the tests Figure 3: Variation of MDD with % of tyre chips
have been conducted as per relevant I.S. code provision
B) Strength characteristics:
III. EXPERIMENT AND RESULT
Standard Proctor and unsoaked CBR test have been
conducted in the laboratory as per I. S. Code provision, for
different series of clayey soil (C)- waste rubber tyre (WRT)
chips composite. The results of these tests are given in the
table 2.
Table 2: Summary of result of standard proctor test
Description of Size MDD OMC CBR
mix (cm) (gm/cc) (%) (%)
C - 1.742 16.7 4.8
C+1% WRT 1cm x 1.71 16.41 7.97
C+3% WRT 4cm 1.698 15.8 9.37 Figure 4: Variation of OMC with % of tyre chips
C+5% WRT 1.653 16.2 7.92
Unsoaked CBR tests have been conducted as per IS: 2720
C+7% WRT 1.630 16.4 6.08
(Part-XVI) on clayey soil- waste tyre-tube chips mix
C+9% WRT 1.612 16.5 5.34
composites to evaluate the strength characteristics of soil
C+1% WRT 1cm x 1.738 16.8 8.84
stabilized with waste tyre-tube chips. Randomly distributed
C+3% WRT 2cm 1.718 16.4 9.74 waste tyre-tube of varying percentages (1%, 3%, 5%, 7%,
C+5% WRT 1.669 16.6 7.25 9%)and sizes (4cm x 1cm, 2cm x 1cm and 1cm x 1cm) have
C+7% WRT 1.654 15.8 5.05 been mixed with soil. The unsoaked CBR values obtained
C+9% WRT 1.643 16.1 3.02 from the laboratory CBR test are given in table 2 and the
C+1% WRT 1cm x 1.737 16 6.11 variations of unsoaked CBR with percentage and length of
C+3% WRT 1cm 1.702 16.4 7.54 tyre chips are shown fig. 5 and 6 respectively.
C+5% WRT 1.671 15.8 5.43 From the figures, it is observed that the unsoaked CBR values
C+7% WRT 1.632 16.4 3.21 of clayey soil-tyre tube chips mix composite increases with
C+9% WRT 1.620 16.6 2.65 increase of percentage as well as length of tyre tube chips and
reaches a maximum value and after that it decreases slowly
A) Compaction characteristics: with further inclusion of waste tyre tube chips within the range
The Standard Proctor tests have been conducted as per IS of the testing programme. The maximum unsoaked CBR
2720 (Part-VII) on clayey soil- waste rubber tyre chips mix value of clayey soil obtained from the laboratory test is 9.74%
composites to determine the optimum moisture content for addition of 3% waste tyre tube chips size of 2cm x 1cm.
(OMC) and maximum dry density (MDD). The clayey soil
20 www.ijeart.com
International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Research Technology (IJEART)
ISSN: 2454-9290, Volume-3, Issue-5, May 2017
[5] Subramanian, R.M. and Jeyapriya,S.P. Study on effect of waste tyres
in flexible pavement system, Proceedings of Indian Geotechnical
Conference, 2009, Guntur, India.
[6] Joshi, N.H. and Shah, R. J. Geotechnical properties of sand
reinforced with randomly distributed tyre shreds, Proceedings of
Indian Geotechnical Conference, December 13th-15th, 2012, Delhi.
[7] Naval,S. and Kumar, A.Utilisation of waste tire fibers in granular
soil, Proceedings of Indian Geotechnical Conference, December
22nd-24th, 2013, Roorkee.
Rajib Ghosh, M.Tech student of Geotechnical Engineering department,
Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology, Kolkata.
Joyanta Maity, PhD (JU) is Assistant Professor of C.E. Dept., Meghnad
Saha Institute of Technology, Kolkata. He is actively engaged in teaching
both PG and UG Civil Engineering students for more than a decade. His
research interests include ground improvement techniques, use of alternative
materials and use of natural geofibers in Civil Engineering. He has published
Figure 5: Variation of unsoaked CBR with % of tyre chips more than 35 papers in different national and international conferences and
journals.
Figure 6: Variation of CBR with length of tyre chips
IV. CONCLUSION
Based on the experiments carried out on soil and soil- Tyre
composite, the following observations and conclusions are
drawn:
1) Maximum dry density of clayey soil-tyre tube chips mix
composite decreases with the increase in percentage of
waste rubber tyre chips. This is due to light weight
nature of waste tyre-tube chips. On the other hand, the
optimum moisture content almost constant with the
increase in percentage of waste tyre-tube chips.
2) There is a considerable increase in the unsoaked CBR
value for clayey soil due to mixing of randomly
distributed waste tyre-tube chips. The maximum
improvement in unsoaked CBR value is due to addition
of waste tyre tube chips size of 2cm x 1cm. And
optimum percentage of waste tyre tube chips is 3% of
the dry weight of soil for all sizes of waste tyre chips
used. Further the addition of waste tyre-tube chips to
soils lead to a decrease in CBR values.
REFERENCES
[1] Ayothiraman, R. and Meena, A.K. Improvement of subgrade soil
with shredded waste tyre chips, Proceedings of Indian Geotechnical
Conference, December 15th-17th, 2011, Kochi.
[2] Gobinath, V. and Stalin, V.K. Performance of geogrid reinforced
rubber waste as subgrade material, Proceedings of Indian
Geotechnical Conference, 2009, Guntur, India.
[3] IS: 2720 (Part VII) 1980, Methods of tests for soil :Determination of
water content- dry density relation using light compaction, Bureau of
Indian Standards, New Delhi.
[4] IS: 2720 (Part XVI) 1987, Methods of tests for soil:Laboratory
Determination of CBR value, Bureau of Indian Standards, New Delhi.
21 www.ijeart.com
