Study the effect of waste rubber materials on shear strength of residual soils

Abstract

One of the problems associated with the socio-economic development of Sri Lanka is waste disposal. One of the wastes generated in engineering and transportation sector is scrap tire and it poses serious environmental problem, worst when it is burnt. This Paper presents study the effect of waste rubber materials on shear strength of residual soils. Series of laboratory direct shear tests were carried out on soil reinforced with randomly distributed rubber strips. The soil was collected from the university premises and rubber strips were obtained from scraped tire tubes. 20mm × 5mm tire tube strip sizes were used as the reinforcement of the residual soil and 0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0%, 2.5%, 3.0% increments were used until reached to the optimum rubber percentage. According to the tests results, the soil type was identified as CVG according to the BS 5930 1990 and the optimum rubber content is 2.0% for the maximum shear strength.