International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication

Volume: 2 Issue: 9

ISSN: 2321-8169
2879 2882

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Also Christ and Park [6] and Marto et al. [13] investigated shear behavior of
Fine-grained sand reinforced with granulated tire
sand reinforced with tire chips by conducting direct shear tests. They
chips
concluded use of tire chips as a reinforcement material causes improvement
in tensile and shear strength of sand.
1
2

Mahmood Anvari , Issa Shooshpasha

Department of Civil Engineering, BabolNoshirvani University of

technology, Iran
2
Department of Civil Engineering, BabolNoshirvani University of
technology, Iran
1
[email protected]
2
[email protected]
Abstract--Ideology of Utilizing waste tires as a material to reinforce sand has
been developed recently. Waste tire properties such as flexibility, tensile
strength and durability are suitable to use them in engineering applications.
Alsodifficulties like fire hazard, environmental contamination occurred by
waste tires are the other reasons to explore a way to reuse them in a
beneficial manner. Soil used in this study is Babolsar (North of Iran) finegrained sand. This paper aims to investigate effects of granulated tire chips
with sizes in the ranges of 4 to 9 mm on the bearing capacity of sand. For
this, a series of model footing tests were conducted on the reinforced sand at
relative density of 55%. Sand was reinforced with different tire chips
contents 5, 6,7,8,10 and15% by weight.Highest bearing capacity ratio (Ratio
of bearing capacity reinforced sand to unreinforced sand) was attained 1.56
with tire chips content of 10% that this amount of tire chips named optimum
percentage of tire chips. Stress settlement graphs showed decrease in
settlement of footing by using tire chips that lowest settlement was happened
in optimum percentage of tire chips.To investigate the optimum reinforced
depth for sand containing optimum tire chips, a few tests were done. Result
indicated optimum reinforced depth is 1B (B is the footing width).
Keywords: Tire chips, Model footing test, Bearing capacity
_______________________________*****_______________________________

1 Introduction
Nowadays, by increase in population and development of vehicles, censuses
indicate higher amount of waste tires. Increase in quantity of waste tires
correlate with environmental hazards so for using them in civil engineering
applications, studies have been done to investigate different characteristics of
tire chips.
Shear behavior of sand rubber chips mixture with dimensions between
12.5-50 mm were studied for the first time by Ahmed [1] in different lateral
pressures in triaxial test. Effects of grain size distribution, density method,
contend of rubber-chips, lateral pressures were investigated. Results showed
confine pressures and weight ratios of rubber-chips are effective parameters
to the shear strength of mixtures containing sand and tire chips. Among the
axial test done in this research,Ahmed found optimum tire chips content in
35% rubber-chips by volume.
Based on triaxial test, Zorenberg et al. [16] conducted triaxial shear tests on
the mixtures having rectangular tire chips. The highest shear strength
occurred under low confining pressure in 35% rubber-chips by weight. Like
Zorenberg, Rao and Dutt [15] investigated effect of rectangular tire chips on
sand characteristics. They found tire chips have length to width ratio of 2
with content of 20% by weight cause the highest increase in shear strength
of sand.
Mahmood Ghazavi and MasoudAmelSakhi[9] determined optimum size of
rectangular rubber chips with width of 2, 3, 4 cm having various length
for each width. Three weight percent of rubber-chips15%, 30%, 50% were
used in the shear direct tests. In this research, sand and tire chips were
blended to achieve uniform mixture. Specimens compacted in three layers to
reach a specified density. Samples in direct shear test were sheared under
three normal stress of 9.8, 39.2, 98.1 kpa. It was observed by increasing in
amount of tire chips, shear strength increases. Mohr-Coulomb envelope were
nonlinear and whatever percentage of rubber-chips increases, nonlinear
behavior of Mohr-Coulomb envelope becomes more clear. In this study
optimum lengths for rubber-chips having width of 2, 3, 4 cm were gotten 10,
12, 8 cm respectively.

Yoon et al. [17] carried out plate load test on sand reinforced with tire chips
at different relative densities such as 40, 50, 70%. At depth reinforcement 0.2
times of width of plate, bearing capacity ratio was observed 2.5. However,
the ratio of bearing capacity reinforced sand to pure sand became lower as
relative density increased.
Masad et al. [12] investigated the effect of granulated tire chips on shear
behavior of sand. Granulated tire chips having maximum size of 4.75 mm
were used. Tests were carried out on mixtures containing 50% tire chips by
volume at relative density of 90%. Results done at confining pressure in the
ranges of 150 to 350 kpa were studied. Contrary to previous studies on sand
tire chips mixtures, no shear strength was observed. Similar to Masad et al.
[12], Youwai and Bergado [18] faced to reduction in shear strength o sand
reinforced by granulated tire chips having average size of 5 mm.
Fooseet al. [8] conducted large-scale directs hear tests on mixtures of rysand
and shredded was tetires. For the majority of their tests, a peak shear stress
was not observed. Instead, the shearstresscontinuedto increase throughout the
test. They reported the shear stress at a horizontal displacement of 2.5 cm as
the shear strength for specimens with nopeakshear stress.
Ahmed [1] carried out compaction tests on sand-tire chips mixtures. He
investigated the effects of specimen preparation, the method of compaction
and sizes of tire chips on compressibility of sand-tire chips mixtures. He
found that the content of tire chips considerably affects the compressibility of
mixtures. However, the effect of compaction method on compressibility of
mixtures is insignificant. Edil and Bosscher [7], Bosscher et al. [5] and
Humphrey et al. [10] reported high initial plastic strain of sand-tire chips
mixtures under loading due to considerable voids of mixtures.
In geotechnical projects, its important to consider impression of waste tires
to environment. Humphrey et al. [11] studied the effect of tire-chips fills
placed above the groundwater table. The results of research showed that
inorganic substances can potentially leach from tires were at low levels in
groundwater.
2 Materials
In this research, Babolsar fine grained sand was passed through 1 inch
grain-size sieve. The particle size distribution for Babolsar sand is indicated
in Fig.1 and also effective size (D10), mean size (D50) and other engineering
properties of the sand are listed in Table 1 and Table 2. By considering of
sand characteristics, it can be concluded that it is SP.

100

percentage passing (%)

80
60
40
20
0
0.01

0.1 grain size (mm)

10

Fig.1.Grain size distribution curve for Babolsar sand

Table1.Engineering properties of sand used in the study
D10 (mm)

D30 (mm)

D50 (mm)

D60 (mm)

Cc

Cu

0.2

0.25

0.27

0.23

1.07

1.45

Table2.Maximum and minimum unit weight values of sand

1

-Corresponding Author: Tel: +98 911 1185358

E-mail address: [email protected] (Mahmood Anvari)
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International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication

Volume: 2 Issue: 9

ISSN: 2321-8169
2879 2882

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Maximum unit weight
)gr/cm3(

Minimum unit weight

)gr/cm3(

1.74

1.48

Tire chips with sizes in the ranges of 4-9 mm were used in this study.These
tire chips are prepared by grinding the waste tires in a few stages with
specialized machinery. These tire-chips removed from metal wires are
classified as granulated rubber-chips. By consider of ASTM D854, The unit
weight and specific gravity values for these tire chips are attained 12.1kN/m3
and 1.34 respectively.

Fig.2: View of tire chips with sizes in the range of 4 to 9 mm

%100

percentage passing(%)

%90
%80
%70
%60
%50
%40
%30
%20

Tire chips content( % by weight)

Maximum unit weight

)gr/cm3(

Minimum unit weight

)gr/cm3(

1.62

1.35

1.57

1.33

10

1.56

1.31

11

1.51

1.30

12

1.52

1.29

15

1.47

1.27

20

1.43

1.24

3.2 Model Description

Testing equipmentconsists of foundation, column and main beam (IPB24)
that was designed to bear maximum force of 30 tones is indicated in fig. 4.
According to figure 4, box used in this studyhas dimensions of 130 cm by
130 cm and 100 cm in height.Box walls are made of plexiglass. So, inside of
the box is visible during the test. The model footing is made out of a steel
plate, 2.5 cm in thickness, 10 cm in width and10 cm in length. The model
footing plate is placed on the surface of the compacted sand-tire chips
mixture. Square Hollow Structural Sections (HSS) are used in this study as
reference beams. Three dial gauges are mounted on reference beams to
measure the settlement of footing. According to ASTM D1194 [2], the
minimum capacity of the loading jack should be 50 tons or 440 kN.
Therefore, in this research, a 50-ton hydraulic jack is used. Load is applied
with a constant rate of strain of 1.0 mm/min. The load and displacements are
recorded at small displacement increments until plate settlement reaches to
25% of plate diameter. The average displacement from dial gauge readings
and the average load are recorded at increments of 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8 and 15
minutes in each stage of loading. It is important to note that the depth of the
mentioned box and the distance between footing and the wall of box are
greater than four times of the footing width. So, the boundary effects on the
test results are considered insignificant (according to Boussinesqs stress
distribution theory).

%10
%0
0

grain size (mm)

10

12

14

Fig.3.Grain size distribution curve for tire chips

3 Testing program
Most of previous investigations on sand and tire-chipsmixtures were done by
direct and triaxial shear tests. According to these researches, adding tirechips to sand increases shear strength parameters and compressibility, in this
study,to consider both shear strength parameters and compressibility effects
on bearing capacity, model of footing is used.
In this study, load applied to the square footing to attain the bearing capacity
of sand reinforced with different tire chips contents and determine best case
which has highest value of bearing capacity. Then, the effects of tire chips on
the settlement of footing resting on sand-tire chips mixture were investigated.
These tests were done in relative density of 55% which pure sand and
mixtures had the same relative density. The reinforced depth and width are
1B and 6B (B is the footing width), respectively. Moreover, in the best case,
several tests were conducted to achieve optimum reinforced depth.
3.1 Density method
In this study, for creating the same density in all mixtures, relative density
method is used. Maximum specific weight of mixtures is attained from
vibratory table test (ASTM D4253 [3]) that frequency of 50 Htz in 10
minutes was used. ASTM D4254 [4] is utilized to achieve minimum specific
weight of mixtures. It is important to notice that in both maximum and
minimum specific weight methods, sand tire chips mixtures should be
placed by funnel having 13 mm distance to the already deposited mixturein
the cylindrical metal mold. Funnel must move in rotary motionsfrom the
outside to the center of mold.
Table5. Minimum and maximum unit weight values of the sand-tire chips
mixtures (size of tire chips: 4 to 9 mm)

Fig.4: Testing equipment

3.3 preparations of mixtures
At first, maximum and minimum specific weights of each mixture are
attained, and then by considering of the relative density of 55%, natural state
dry unit weight is achieved. So, by having the reinforced volume, weight of
mixture is determined for each test. Then,according to percentage of tire
chipsin each mixture,contents of sand and tire chips are calculated. By
consider of sand optimum water content (14%), water is added to the
container which contains Sand and tire chips. Then sand and tire chips are
mixed randomly to obtain uniform mixture.
3.4 Bearing capacity of sand-tire chips mixtures
In this study which comprises model footing tests, load-settlement curves of
sand reinforced with tire chips were compared with pure sands. Tests were
conducted atreinforced depth and width of 10 cm (1B) and 60 cm (6B),
respectively. Fig.5 shows bearing capacity ratio (BCR) of sand reinforced
with tire chips. It is worth mentioning that BCR is defined as the ultimate
bearing capacity of a square footing resting on reinforced sand to the ultimate
bearing capacity of the same footing resting on pure sand.The percentages of
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IJRITCC | September 2014, Available @ http://www.ijritcc.org

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International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication

Volume: 2 Issue: 9

ISSN: 2321-8169
2879 2882

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
tire chips with sizes in the range of 4 to 9 mm to sand were 5, 9, 10, 11, 12
and 15%by weight.When sand is reinforced with 10-cm layer of sand- tire
chips mixture, bearing capacity of sand increases significantly and also,
settlement decreases appreciably. As shown in Fig.5, the optimum 4 to 9
mm-tire chips content is 10% which increases the bearing capacity up to
55%. However, adding more tire chips leads to a decrease in the bearing
capacity of sand. According to the results of tests, it is obvious that the
maximum amount of increase in shear strength parameters occurs by
addingoptimum tire chips content. But after optimum value, shear strength
parameters decrease gradually.

Fig. 6: Eeqm/Eeq versus tire chips content (size of tire chips: 4 to 9 mm)

3.6 The effect of the reinforced depth on the bearing capacity of sandtire chips mixtures

Fig. 5: Effect of tire chips with sizes in the range of 4 to 9 mm on BCR

3.5 Settlement of sand reinforced with tire chips
To show how settlement of footing is varied by stress-settlement diagram,
qB (12 )
I
E

parameter of Eeq is used. According to S=

Results of conducted tests showed that sand-tire chips mixture containing tire
chips content of 10 weight percent of sand, has the most effect on increase of
the bearing capacity and settlement reduction. Hence, model footing tests
were done on this mixture at different reinforced depth (D) of 0.5B, 1B,
1.25B and 1.5B to study how variation of sand bearing capacity is. Fig.7
indicates that increasing reinforced depth causes increment in bearing
capacity. This increase is continued up to 1B=10 cm. However, greater
reinforced depths lead to a decrease in the bearing capacity. It is noteworthy
to mention that the reinforced width has been 5B=50 cm in the tests.

which presents

Where S is the settlement of the footing (m), q is intensity of contact

pressure(kN/m2), B is width of the footing (m), is Poissons ratio of soil, I
is influence factor and E is modulus of elasticity (kN/m2). Eeq andEeqm are
the values of the initial modulus of elasticity for pure sand and sand-tire
chips mixture, respectively Eeq and Eeqm are calculated from the linear
portion of load-settlement relationships of model footingtests. Fig.5shows the
method of determining Eeqm for sand-tire chips mixture containing 4 to 9-mm
tire chips with content of 5%. Figs. 6 illustrate the variation of Eeqm/Eeq ratio
against tire chips content (M %).

Local shear failure involves rupture of the soil only immediately below the
footing. Local shear failure can be considered as a transitional phase between
general shear and punching shear. A local shear failure occurs for soils that
are in a medium dense or firm state. Therefore, based on load-settlement
curves, such as Fig.5, and considering relative density of 55%, it can be
concluded that local shear failure has been occurred in the tests. Internal
friction angle of sand increases with increasing in amount of tire chips. So,
bearing capacity increases due to this occurrence. Unlike direct shear and
triaxial tests, footing model test considers effect of soil compressibility on
the soil resistance. As shown in Fig.7, decrement in sand bearing capacity
occurs from reinforced depth of 1B to 1.5B which can be related to the
increase of soil compressibility according to the studies of Ahmed [1], Edil
andBosscher [7], Bosscher et al. [5] and Humphrey et al. [10].

Fig. 5: method of determining Eeqm

Fig. 7: Variation of BCR versus reinforced depth

settlement of a footing resting on the surface of elastic half-space, Eeq can be

attained in term of

q
s

= B(12 ) I = Eeq .

As shown in Fig.6, Eeqm/Eeq increases with increasing tire chips content up to

M=10%. However, Eeqm/Eeq value reduces with greater percentage of tire
chips. It should be noted that in mixtures with tire chips in the ranges of 4 to
9 mm, the least settlement occurred in the optimum tire chips content. Also,
the values of Eeqm/Eeq were approximately half of BCR values in the optimum
percentages. Hence, tire chips are more effective onreduction of settlement at
optimum content.

4Conclusion
According to the laboratory tests, several significant results can be
concluded:
1- By considering of results, obtaining from model footing tests, sand- tire
chips mixtures increase bearing capacity and decrease settlement of sand.
The most effective case relates to the mixture containing 10 weight percent
of tire chips. This mixture increases bearing capacity up to 50%.
2- As it was mentioned, adding tire chips to sand up to 10% by weight
increases bearing capacity. Then, bearing capacity decreases with greater
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IJRITCC | September 2014, Available @ http://www.ijritcc.org

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International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication

Volume: 2 Issue: 9

ISSN: 2321-8169
2879 2882

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
content of tire chips. This certain tire chips content is called optimum
percentage of tire chips.
3- Increase in depth of reinforced layer, containing mixture with 10 weight
percent of tire chips, improves bearing capacity up to 1B=10 cm. After this
certain depth, decrease in bearing capacity occurs. Therefore, the optimum
reinforced depth is 1B= 10 cm.
4- Utilizing sand- tire chips mixtures lead sand to have less settlement
against applying load. The most decrement in settlements happens in the
optimum tire chips content.
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