Energy Absorption Capacity and Shear Strength Characteristics of Waste Tire Crumbs and Sand Mixtures

The primary objective of the study is to estimate the energy absorption (EA) capacity, brittleness index (ductility) and stiffness characteristics of Sand-Tire Crumb Mixtures (STCM) using direct shear test and Unconsolidated Undrained (UU) triaxial test for the effective reuse of waste tire crumbs as isolation materials. The properties considered include, strength and deformation characteristics of a STCM. A relatively uniform sand and readily available tire crumb grouped into four size has been selected to generate STCM. Experimental studies have been carried out on STCM with constant density of 1.54 g/cc. Stress-strain curve obtained from UU test has been used to estimate EA. The experimental results show that peak strength, EA and stiffness increases with increasing percentage of tire crumbs up to 25% and starts decreasing thereafter. Among the tested tire crumb sizes, crumb size IV provide the maximum EA without compromising on strength compared to other tire crumb sizes.