The Effect of a Combination of Steel Fiber Waste Tyre and Crumb Rubber on the Mechanical Properties of High-Strength Concrete

Abstract

This study examined the effect of a combination of steel fiber waste tyre (SFWT) and crumb rubber (CR) on high-strength concrete. Steel fiber and crumb rubber ranging in size from 1-2 mm were recycled from waste tires. The steel fiber waste tyre was then incorporated into high-strength rubberized concrete (HSRC) and high-strength rubberized fly ash concrete (HSRFAC) mixes. In this study, 10% volume of crumb rubber of maximum size passing sieve 4.75 mm was used to replace fine aggregates and steel fiber waste tyre (SFWT) dosages of 0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, and 2.0% by mass of concrete were added in concrete to investigate the mechanical properties of the high strength concrete. The compressive and tensile strength tests at 28 days were carried out on cylinder specimens of 150 mm diameter and 300 mm length. The results show that the addition of SFWT on HSRC and HSRFAC reduces concrete workability but increases the mechanical properties of the concrete. More SFWT are added, the higher compressive and tensile strength were obtained. The use of SFWT by 0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, and 2.0% on high-strength rubberized concrete (HSRC) increases the compressive strength of 2.65%, 10.55%, 20.91%, and 32.89% and the tensile strength of 5.78%, 21.97%, 32.95%, and 41.62%, respectively. The higher compressive and tensile strengths on high-strength rubberized fly ash concrete (HSRFAC) mixtures are observed at the addition of 2% SFWT with 10% content of crumb rubber. The addition of 2% SFWT improves the maximum compressive and tensile strengths up to 41.58% and 50.30%, which is 73.48 MPa and 6.46 MPa, respectively.