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Effects of Relative Density on Shear Strength Characteristics of Sand-Tire Chips

Mixture

Article  in  Electronic Journal of Geotechnical Engineering · January 2013

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 Effects of Relative Density on Shear
Strength Characteristics of Sand-Tire
Chips Mixture
Edy Tonnizam Mohamad
Associate Professor (Dr.) Department of Geotechnics and Transportation,
Faculty of Civil Engineering,Universiti Technologi Malaysia (UTM)
e-mail: edy@utm.com

Nima Latifi*
Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Geotechnics and Transportation, Faculty of
Civil Engineering, Universiti Technologi Malaysia (UTM)
*Corresponding Author; e-mail: En_latifi@yahoo.com

Aminaton Marto
Professor, Department of Geotechnics and Transportation, Faculty of Civil
Engineering, Universiti Technologi Malaysia (UTM)
e-mail: aminaton@utm.my

Razieh Moradi
Ph.D. Student, Department of Geotechnics and Transportation, Faculty of Civil
Engineering, Universiti Technologi Malaysia (UTM)
e-mail: mrazieh2@live.utm.my

Seyed Vahid Alavi Nezhad Khalil Abad

Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Geotechnics and Transportation, Faculty of
Civil Engineering, Universiti Technologi Malaysia (UTM)
e-mail: v_alavi_59@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
Disposal scrap tires are environmental dilemma. However, they can improve the
characteristics of soil which is an essential material of construction. These problems may be
somehow reduced by finding applications for them in engineering, for example, as
lightweight materials for backfill in geotechnical projects. This research studied the shear
characteristics of sand after adding pieces of tire chips in different relative densities (35% and
75%), by doing direct shear experimental tests. Waste tire grains were prepared with special
popular machinery in a local area. Sand and tire chips were mixed with different weight
percentages such as 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% by weight. Three normal stresses (28.9,
56.2, and 110.7 kPa) were considered for all the experiments. The rubber grains were
distributed in the sand such that uniform mixtures are obtained. The internal friction angle and
the effects of different parameters in the experiments were analyzed and discussed. The

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results showed that the influencing parameters on shear strength characteristics of sand-rubber
mixtures are normal stress, mixture unit weight, and rubber content, also it showed that
adding tire chips up to 10%, can improve the shear characteristics of soil. From environmental
point of view and due to lightweight material for the sand-waste hose particles, it may be
useful to use such materials in corresponding geotechnical projects.
KEYWORDS: shear properties, tire chips, sand, friction angle, environment,
geotechnical engineering.

INTRODUCTION
Annually millions of scrap tires around the world are got out of the utilizing cycle and
disposed in nature. For instance according to a report, 299 million waste tires abandoned in the
environment in USA in 2005. The number of disposed scrap tires was 103 million in Japan, 28
million in Canada, 20 million in South Korea, and 14 million in the UK. Waste tires cause
environmental, health, and safety threats to contemporary massive societies. They stagnant water
that breeds insects and pests which spread serious diseases. Waste tries also cause fire which
ruins the nature and contaminates the weather. Disposal of waste tires in the suburbs makes
unpleasant views. It is reported that only 30% of the total scrap tires in USA are disposed in legal
specific locations, the rest are left in nature. Making use of scrap tires in construction works is not
only a beneficial approach for reducing environmental pollution caused by this kind of waste, but
also is economically efficient. Scrap tires are light materials in road construction projects, fences
behind the retaining walls, landfill drainage, and thermal insulator. There are advanced
techniques that alter scrap tires to pieces with various shapes and sizes, such as tire chips, tire
powder, shredded tire, tire crumb, tire buffing, and others. These materials have specific
characteristics that enhance the quality of geotechnical projects. Their most noticeable
characteristics are durability, strength, lightness, compaction, drainage, and high frictional
resistance. Therefore, in addition to being an economic solution to environmental problems,
combining these materials with soil with low shear strength addresses the geotechnical problems
that civil engineers face. Ample studies have been done to identify and evaluate the
characteristics of shear strength of sand and rubber mixture. Almost, all of these studies
emphasized that adding some amount of rubber to sand improves its shear strength. However, the
amount of rubber and the rate of improvement depend on various factors such as: normal stress,
tire content, tire aspect ratio, tire length, sand matrix unit weight, and compaction. This research
made an attempt to study the characteristics of shear strength of tire chips and sand mixtures. It
was also the aim of this study to analyze the effects of relative density on shear properties of
sand-tire chips mixture.

TESTING PROGRAM
For the purpose of observing the behavior of sand, rubber, and their mixture, Standard Direct
Shear Test Device (60mm×60mm) was utilized. The thickness of the samples was 25mm. All
tests were done based on the method explained in ASTM D3080-72 (1989) In all tests, three
normal stresses of 28.9, 56.2, and 110.07 kPa were applied. Samples included pure sand, pure
rubber, and their mixture based on different percentages of weight of 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and
50% tire chips mixed with sand. Numerical calculations of each sample were done based on the
maximum and minimum of dry density and the relative density of 75%, as a dense mixture, and
35%, as a loose mixture, was considered to determine the weight of the sample to be compacted
in the Shear Box Device. One of the factors that may influence the results of the experiments is

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segregation. Segregation happens when sand is mixed with long pieces of rubber or tire shreds.
Edil and Bosscher (1994) and Bosscher (1992) conducted some experiments on sand-tire chips
and sand-tire shred and they observed that when the ratio of sand to tire chips was low in the
mixture (for example, less than 30% based on volume), segregation happened and sand tended to
set in the bottom of the mold. They found that when the amount of sand is high, segregation does
not happen. Edil and Bosscher (1994) also observed segregation in the mixture of sand and tire
shreds, when the ratio of mixture was 50% based on volume and vibratory compaction was used.
Therefore, to avoid segregation during mixing the samples, the necessary care was taken by keep
mixing and observing the mixture from the beginning till pouring them into the Shear Box. When
the samples got ready, placed in the shear box, and by reached the relative density (by
compacting) the normal stresses were applied and samples were sheared. All the tests were done
based on controlled-displacement. Shear rate in Standard Direct Shear Test is usually controlled
by an electric motor and a multi-speed drive unit, typically providing 24 speeds ranging from
5mm/min to about 0.0003 mm/min (Head, 1982) In all experiments that were done in this study,
shear rate was considered 1mm/min which was close to the rates considered by other researchers.
For granular dry mixtures used in the experiments shear rate is not important in the absence of
pore water (Ghazavi, 2004) According to ASM3080 (1989), all tests should be continued until
shear stress becomes essentially constant or until a maximum shear deformation of 10mm has
been reached. In most cases, samples show maximum shear stress in determining the figures less
than 10mm. In order to be sure that the procedure was done correctly and the results are real and
accurate, all tests were repeated at least one more time.

MATERIALS
The sand used in the experiments of this study was river sand with uniform gradation taken
from the rivers of Johor Bahru in the South part of Malaysia. The tire chips were bought from a
company located in Kuala Lumpur that alters machinery scrap tires to other materials. The tire
chips were cleared of any dust. The gradation of sand and rubber were obtained based on
ASTMD422-63 (1989) Figure 1 shows the gradation of rubber and sand. The specific gravity of
sand was 2.66 according to ASTMD854-83 (1989) The maximum and the minimum of dry
density for sand were 1.69 g/cm3 and 1.43 g/cm3 measured by experiment based on ASTM4253,
4254. The sand used had D50=0.8, which indicates the sand was relatively coarse. The tire chips
were angular with relatively even surface. Their dimensions were between 1 to 4mm. The specific
gravity of the tire chips was obtained 1.16 that has been done several times based on the method
explained in ASTM D854-83 (1989) The mixing ratios and unit weights of mixtures are presented
in Table1. It is seen that one tenth increment in tire leads to 10% decrement in unit weight of
mixtures.

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100
Precentage Passing (%)
80

60

40 Sand
Tire chips
20

0
0.01 0.1 1 10

Particle Size (mm)

Figure 1: Grain size distribution of sand and tire chips

Table 1: Mixing Ratios and Densities of Specimens

Sand
Fraction (g/cm3) (g/cm3)
Sf=1 2.667 1.431 1.694 0.863 0.574
Sf=0.9 2.423 1.295 1.447 0.871 0.673
Sf=0.8 2.184 1.133 1.269 0.926 0.721
Sf=0.7 1.988 0.982 1.147 1.024 0.732
Sf=0.6 1.809 0.878 1.039 1.060 0.740
Sf=0.5 1.646 0.781 0.927 1.107 0.775
Sf=0.2 1.267 0.484 0.547 1.616 1.315
Sf=0 1.160 0.402 0.452 1.882 1.566

DISCUSSION
Results for sand-tire chips loose mixtures
The inclusion of all figures in this paper is cumbersome and makes the paper long. Only a
limited number of them are presented here. The Standard Direct Shear Test was done on the
samples of sand, tire chips and mixtures of them using three normal stresses of 28.9, 56.2, and
110.07 kPa. Figures 2 depict shear stress- shear displacement for three distinct normal stresses for
different mixture ratio of sand and tire chips of the loose mixtures. As can be seen in the figure,
an increase in the amount of tire chips leads to increase in shear stress.

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30
Sand
25
Shear Stress (kpa)

20 10% Tire chips

15 20% tire chips
10 30% tire chips
5
40% tire chips
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 50% tire chips
Shear Displacement (mm) 100% tire

Figure 2: Variation of shear stress versus shear displacement for tire chips-sand mixtures at normal stress
of 28.9 kPa

However, close attention to Figure 3 -which shows the graph of maximum shear stress for the
different amounts of tire chips- reveals that shear strength increases by adding tire chips to special
amounts, then it starts to decrease gradually. This special amount for the sand used was nearly
10% based on weight. The decrease of shear strength after this percentage in higher normal
stresses is more obvious.

70 Applied
Maximum shear stress

60 Normal Stress
50 28.9 (kpa)
40 Applied
(kpa)

30 Normal Stress
20 56.2 (kpa)
10
Applied
0 Normal Stress
0 20 40 60 80 100 110.7 (kpa)
Tire chips content (%)

Figure 3: Variation of maximum shear stress with tire chip content at different normal stress

Figure 4 illustrates the changes of shear stress based on applying normal stress for different
percentages of sand and tire chips. It is clear that when tire chips percentage increases, shear
stress increases with its trend up to 10% tire chips and then, gradually decreases by exceeding
beyond of 10% tire chips ratio.

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80 Sand
Maximum Shear Stress
70
60 10% Tire chips
50
20% Tire chips
(kPa)
40
30 30% Tire chips
20
10 40% Tire chips
0
0 50 100 150 50% Tire chips

Normal Stress (kPa) 100% Tire chips

Figure 4: Shear stress-normal stress variation for sand-tire chip mixtures with various mix ratios

It was observed that in higher normal stresses, the increase of distances between shears
can be revealed more obviously.

Results for sand-tire chips dense mixtures

A number of points can be drawn from Figures 5-8. These can be summarized as:

40 Sand
Shear Stress (kPa)

30 10% Tire ch

20 20% tire ch
30% tire ch
10
40% tire ch
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 50% tire ch

Shear Displacement (mm) 100% tire

Figure 5: Variation of shear stress versus shear displacement for tire chips-sand mixtures at normal stress
of 28.9 kPa

As the results showed, a relatively clear peak can be observed in shear resistance of almost
all mixed samples, regardless of compaction level and rubber contents, except for pure rubber
grains for which the shear stress still increases slightly with increasing horizontal deformation
and also the addition of rubber grains cannot enhance significantly the shear resistance of the
mixtures. The shear resistance of the mixtures does not increase in a regular manner with
increasing rubber grains.

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80
Applied Normal
Maximum shear stress
70
60 Stress 28.9
(kpa)
50
(kPa)

40 Applied Normal
30 Stress 56.2
20 (kpa)
10
Applied Normal
0 Stress 110.7
0 20 40 60 80 100 (kpa)
Tire chips content (%)
Figure 6: Variation of maximum shear stress with tire chip content at different normal stress

Sand
80
70 10% Tire chips
60
Shear Stress (kPa)

20% Tire chips

50
40 30% Tire chips
30 40% Tire chips
20
50% Tire chips
10
0 100% Tire chips
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Normal Stress (kPa)

Figure 7: Shear stress-normal stress variation for sand-tire chip mixtures with various mix ratios

The dilation of mixtures increases with increasing rubber contents. However, this
phenomenon is less significant in loose mixtures containing lower percentage of rubber contents.
All slightly compacted sand-rubber mixtures are first condensed and then dilate under shear
stress. The sand alone dilates after a small condensing. These findings are supported by Lee et al.
(1999), who found that rubber-sand mixtures tend to contract initially and then begin to expand.
This is a typical behavior of sands, but the range of strains for which there is contraction is wider
than for sands, and dilatancy is much less. From the database provided by performing tests, the
values of initial friction angle for different sand-tire chips mixtures at two relative density
conditions are obtained as shown in Figure 8. In this figure, for comparison, the friction angle of
the sand alone and the rubber grains alone at the same compacted effort is also shown to
demonstrate the effectiveness of rubber additive. It is seen that adding the rubber grains up to
10% can increase the initial friction of the sand from 31.3–32.8 in denser mixtures. In the loose
mixtures, varies from 25.5–29.35 by adding 10% rubber grains to the sand. It is interesting to
note that the rubber alone possesses only a friction angle of 16.8. From these figures, it is clear
that the addition of rubber particles to sands cannot enhance the shear resistance significantly.
However, the rubber grain-sand mixtures are lightweight materials, which exert less lateral earth
pressures on retaining structures in comparison with those exerted from sands alone. Also the

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results showed that the influence of the tire chips on friction angle of sand in loose mixture is
more than the dense mixture.
35
Internal friction angle

30 75%
25 Relative
Density
(degree)

20
35%
15 Relative
10 Density

5
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Tire chips content (%)

Figure 8: Variation of initial friction angle versus rubber contents for loose and dense mixtures

Adding 10% tire chips particles to the sand inversely affects the friction angle values of
the mixtures. This is because greater percentage of rubber grains is uniformly distributed in the
mixtures resulting in more voids. These voids cannot be filled with sand since the amount of sand
is limited. The rubber grains thus trap the sand grains in shear zone. Therefore, the friction
between rubber particles gradually governs. Adding further rubber beyond 10% to the sand is
ineffective on the friction angle of sand-rubber mixtures. This is because, in shear zone, the
rubber particles surround the sand grains and make more voids. Thus the rubber grains mainly
control the friction between particles. The mixtures are not thus assumed to be composite and
their friction angles approach that of pure rubber particles.

CONCLUSIONS
The shear strength of tire chips and sand mixture was analyzed in this research to figure out
whether it is convenient for using as a lightweight material in geotechnical projects. For analysis
purposes, Standard Direct Shear Device was used. Samples were sand, tire chips and the mixture
of them with 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% tire chips of the total weight. The relative densities
of sand were determined 35% and 75%. It was found that Shear resistance of mixture is greater
than the sand alone and, in this case, an increase in tire chips up to 10% increases the internal
friction angle from 31.3–32.8 in denser mixtures and 25.5–29.35 in looser mixtures. The angle of
pure tire chips is about 16.8°. Moreover, the findings indicate that adding 10% tire chips to sand
increases the internal friction angle and the shear strength of sand. The observations reveal that
adding more tire chips decreases the angle gradually. It was shown that an addition of 10% tire
chips to the sand is optimal to obtain the greatest friction angle. Thus the shear resistance does not
change significantly; however, the rubber grain-sand mixtures are lightweight materials imposing
lower lateral earth pressures in retaining structures. Also dilation characteristics were observed in
sand-tire chips mixtures, especially in samples having more relative densities.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to thank the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) for the financial
support provided for this research. The author wishes to thank technical staff in Soil Mech. Lab of
UTM.

REFERENCES
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[2] Attom, M. F. (2006) The use of shredded waste tires to improve the geotechnical
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tyre chip-sand mixtures. Geotechnique, 55(8), 603-606.
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© 2013, EJGE

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