Proceedings of Indian Geotechnical Conference

December 22-24,2013, Roorkee

UTILISATION OF WASTE TIRE FIBERS IN GRANULAR SOIL

Sanjeev Naval, Associate Professor, DAVIET, Jalandhar,sanjeevnaval2005@yahoo.com

Arvind Kumar, Professor, NIT, Jalandhar,agnihotriak@nitj.ac.in

ABSTRACT: A series of laboratory model tests has been carried out on a model strip footing to
investigate the use of waste tire fibers as reinforcement to increase the bearing capacity of granular soil.
Fiber aspect ratio of 22.5(length 45mm, width 2mm) has been selected for the present study. Load tests at
various fiber contents of 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75% & 1.0% at various depths of reinforcements viz. 0.5B,
1.0B, 1.5B and 2.0B (B is the width of the footing) were conducted at relative density 50% of soil. It has
been found that Bearing Capacity Ratio of soil is improved with the addition of waste tire fibers at all
fiber contents and depths of reinforcement. A maximum value of 1.64 has been found at a fiber content of
0.75% and thickness of reinforcement 1.5B. The results show the potential use of waste tyres, the solid
waste in Geotechnical engineering.

INTRODUCTION triaxial compression tests on sand tire chip mixture.

Disposal of waste tires has become a challenging
task across the globe. In India nearly 100 million
tons of scrap tires are discarded every year, Korea
generates nearly 20 million tons, in U.S. an
estimate touches 250 million tones& Canada
generates nearly 28 million tons of waste tires
every year. The uncontrolled tire dumps, stockpiles
throughout the countries, is a threat to environment
and public health. Several beneficial uses of tire
waste have been proposed in the last decade.
Ahmed (1993) conducted triaxial tests on mixtures
tire chips with Ottawa sand. He found that apparent
cohesion increases and friction angle decreases as
chip content is increased in the mix. Edil and
Bosscher(1994) revealed that addition of 25%
chips (size 20 to80mm) to sand results in greater
shear strength at low normal stresses. Lee
et.al(1999) determined the stress strain relationship
of mixture of sand and tire chips and observed that
dilatancy behavior of rubber sand is in between
pure sand and pure chips.The direct shear tests
performed by Attom(2006) on rubber shred mixed
sand shows shear strength improvement from
0.47kg/cm2 at 0% to 0.95kg/cm2 at 40% tire shred
content.Rao and Dutta(2006) assessed the stress
strain volume change response in a
The tire chips had size of 10mmx10mm,
20mmx20mm and 10mmx20mm.The study
indicated that addition of tire chips in sand causes
marginal increase of 20 in all the sizes. Yoon et
al.(2008) performed plate load tests on tire cell
reinforced sand. The sand samples with different
relative densities of 40%, 50% and 70% were
prepared, it was concluded that BCR in loose sand
with tire cell showed improvement in BCR as 2.5
at a depth of 0.2 times the plate width and BCR
decreased as density increased. Triaxial testing by
Dutta and Rao(2009) on tire shred mixed soil
showed increase in energy absorption capacity,
deviator stress with the increase in aspect ratio,chip
content and confining pressure. The direct shear
tests on rubber sand mixes at low temperatures by
Christ and Park(2010) at different rubber contents
of 0%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 30% indicated
improvement in the compressive, tensile and shear
strength of rubber mixed soil. Unconfined
compression testing by Roustaei and
Ghazavi(2011) on waste tire mixed clay soil shows
improvement in reduction of strength in freeze and
thaw cycles thus pointing towards the application
of waste tire scrap in cold regions.

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Sanjeev Naval, Arvind Kumar

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION
Materials used
River sand is used in the study. The sand is
classified as (SP) by Unified Soil Classification
System (USCS). Engineering properties of the soil
used are presented in Table 1. Tires were cut
manually with a special cutter into thin fibers with
different lengths of 25mm.The thickness of the
fiber(Tf) varies from 1.5-2mm (see Fig.1) i.e.
aspect ratio(Ar) of 12.5 was used in this study.
Table 1Engineering properties of soil used
Soil Properties Values
Coefficient of uniformity(Cu) 2.14
Coefficient of curvature(Cc) .95
3 which are defined as under
Maximum unit weight(KN/m ) 17
3 BCR =
Minimum unit weight(KN/m ) 12
2.0B. Tire fibers were mixed with sand at different
percentages of 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75% & 1.0% by
weight and upto different depths of 0.5B, 1.0B,
1.5B and 2.0B. The tank was filled in layers of 10
cm each. Each layer was tamped and compacted to
a specified thickness to achieve desired relative
density of 60%.
Testing program
The total of 17 plate load tests were carried out
under plain strain conditions on a surface footing
resting on unreinforced and reinforced soil with
different fiber contents. The results of tests are
presented in terms of Bearing Capacity Ratio
(BCR) and Settlement Reduction Factor (SRF),
Where,
qu = Ultimate Bearing capacity(UBC) of
unreinforced soil
qr = Ultimate Bearing capacity of reinforced soil
SRF =
Where,
Sr = Settlement of reinforced soil corresponding to
UBC of unreinforced soil
Su = Settlement of unreinforced soil corresponding
to UBC of unreinforced soil

Fig. 1: Waste TyreFibres

Footing and testing apparatus

Rectangular footing of steel of size 68cm12cm
and rectangular M.S tank of size
83cm68cm60cm was used for the study. A static
loading system was applied using a mechanical
arrangement. Loads and corresponding settlements
were measured using the load cell and dial gauges.

Filling of tank and preparation of soil bed

Soil bed was prepared in two layers as shown in
Fig. 2. Top reinforced soil layer (h1) and bottom
unreinforced soil layer (h2) such that H = h1 + h2. H
has been taken as 5B, h1 was varied from 0.5 to

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 Utilisation of waste tire fibers in granular soil

1.50
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Bearing Capacity Ratio

Pressure settlement curves at relative density 60% 1.40
and at various fibers content and thicknesses of 1.30
reinforced layers are shown in Fig. 5-8. The values Depth=.5B
of BCR and SR at each fiber content and thickness 1.20 Depth=1B
for reinforcement at relative density 60% are Depth=1.5B
1.10
Depth=2B
tabulated in Tables 3 and 4 respectively and
1.00
corresponding curves are shown in Figure 9 and 0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00
10.
Percentage of fibre
Table 2: BCR at relative density 50%
Fig. 3.BCR at relative density 50%
Thickness BCR at different fiber contents
of
RD
reinforced 0.25% 0.50% 0.75% 1.0%
soil layer Percentage of Fibre
.5B 1.21 1.29 1.43 1.35 0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 1.25
1B 1.26 1.32 1.44 1.38 0.40
50% Settlement Ratio
1.5B 1.29 1.38 1.53 1.46 0.50
2B 1.24 1.34 1.47 1.43
0.60
Table 3 SRFat RD 50% 0.70
Thickness Depth=.5B
of SRF at different fiber contents. 0.80 Depth=1B
RD Depth=1.5B
reinforced 0.90
soil layer 0.25% 0.5% 0.75% 1.0% Depth=2B
0.5B 0.62 0.59 0.5 0.53 1.00
1.0B 0.61 0.54 0.45 0.52
50% Fig. 4.Settlement Ratio at relative density 50%
1.5B 0.57 0.52 0.43 0.45
2.0B 0.6 0.52 0.47 0.43
Effect of thickness of reinforced soil layer
It has been observed that maximum BCR was
Effect of fiber content achieved at thickness of 1.5B (Table 2) where B is
It is also observed that out of four fiber contents, the width of the footing. It may be due to the fact
fiber content of 0.75% shows maximum that for a footing of width B the significant depth is
improvement in the bearing capacity of soil. 1.5B approximately. It is the soil with in this zone
Beyond 0.75% i.e. at 1.0% fiber content, it is which contributes to the bearing capacity of the
observed that the BCR doesnt change much soil. Reinforcement at a depth more than 1.5B will
instead settlements recorded are more(Table 3), not contribute much in mobilization of the
indicating more fiber content in soils than the frictional forces within the soil mass.
optimum value. Upto the optimum content there is
an interaction between the rubber fibers and soil
grains which improves the frictional properties of
the soil grain. Beyond optimum value the rubber
content starts interacting with the rubber content
rather than the soil grains hence, no improvement
in bearing capacity.

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Sanjeev Naval, Arvind Kumar

Conclusions:- 5. Attom, M.F. (2006). "The use of shredded

Bearing capacity of soil is improved at all the waste tires to improve the geotechnical
four fiber contents, i.e. 0.25%, 0.50%, 0.75% & engineering properties of sands."
1.0%. Environmental Geology, 49, 497-503.
The optimum depth of reinforcement at which 6. R. K. Dutta, and G.V.Rao (2006),
Bearing Capacity Ratio (BCR) is maximum and Compressibility and strength behavior of
settlement reduction factor (SRF) is minimum sand-tyre chip mixtures. Geotechnical and
lies at thickness of reinforcement of 1.5B (B is Geological Engineering 24 (2006) 711-724.
the width of footing), beyond 1.5B the BCR 7. Y. W.Yoon, SeungBeomHeo and Keu
almost remains same instead the settlements SooKim(2008),Geotechnical Performance
starts increasing. of Waste Tire For Soil Reinforcement from
The fiber content of 0.75% has been observed to Chamber Tests. ELSEVIER, Geotextiles
be optimum content,beyond which settlements and Geomembranes 26(2008) 100-107.
start increasing. 8. R.K. Dutta and G.V. Rao(2009),
Regression models for Predicting the
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Engineering, Purdue University,West Laboratory determination of strength
Lafayette,Ind.1991. properties of frozen rubber-sand mixtures,
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"Engineering properties of tire chips and (2010) 169-175.
soil mixtures."Geotechnical Testing 10. MahyaRoustaei, Mahmoud Ghazavi
Journal, ASTM, 14(4), 453-464. Strength Characteristics of Clay Mixtures
3. Foose G.J, Benson C.H., and Bosscher P.J. with Waste Materials in Freeze-Thaw
(1996). "Sand reinforced with shredded Cycles, Journal of Structural Engineering
waste tires." Journal of Geotechnical and Geotechnics,1 (2), 57-62, Fall 2011.
Engineering, ASCE, 122(9), 760-767.
4. J.H. Lee., Salgado R., Bernal A. and
Lovell C.W.(1999),Shredded tires and
rubber-sand as lightweight backfill,
ASCE Journal of Geotechnical and
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Engineering,125(2),131-141.

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