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Strength and Microstructure Properties of Double Layered Concrete Paving

Blocks Containing Waste Tyre Rubber Granules
Euniza Juslia, Hasanan Md Nora*, Ramadhansyah Putra Jayaa, Zaiton Haronb
aDepartment of Geothechnics and Transportation, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor Malaysia
bDepartment of Structure and Materials, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Johor Bahru, Johor Malaysia

*Corresponding author: hasanan@utm.my

Article history Abstract

Received: 5 September 2014 This paper aims to examine the effect of replacing the natural aggregate with waste tyrerubber granules.
Received in revised form: Waste tyrerubber granules were used as aggretate replacement in the pavingblock at four different
3 December 2014 percentage: 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%. The paving blocks were tested in terms of their strength and the
Accepted 3 January 2015 characteristics of their microstructure by measuring compressive strength, flexural strength, splitting tensile
strength, and skid resistance. Field scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and Fourier Transform Infra-
Graphical abstract Red(FTIR) analysis werecarried out on the paving block specimen. When 10% of the natural aggregate was
replaced with waste tyrerubber granules, there was no substantial difference in the compressive strength
but the flexural and splitting tensile strength increased to a certain extent. When more than 20% of waste
tyrerubber granulesis incorporated in the paving blocks, the strength is acutely reduced even though there
is a growth in ductility. The results proved that even after failure, the paving blocks did not shatter but still
stayed imperforated. Double layer rubberized concrete paving blocks (DL-RCPBs) are more flexible and
soft to the surface, and thus provide a better ride quality. This characteristic makes it suitable for trafficked
roads. DL-RCPBs (30% and 40%) with low strength characteristics could be used on roads that not required
high strength and may be viable for other applications, depending on the percentage of waste tyre rubber
used. DL-RCPB with higher waste tyre rubber content exhibit higher skid resistance especially on dry
surface but reduced on slippery surface. Two main factors that influence the skid resistance are high
elasticity and rough surface texture of waste tyre rubber. It is suggested that DL-RCPBs could be introduced
as one of alternative concrete paving block (CPB) that can be used in paving application.

Keywords: Rubber; strength; microstructure; double layer; paving block

© 2015 Penerbit UTM Press. All rights reserved.

1.0 INTRODUCTION process of rubber shredding is only employed by several companies

to shred rubber into crumbs or powder. Therefore, measures that
Many countries view waste tyre management and disposal as a assimilate the use of civil engineering applications should be taken
huge problem that can have much negative effects on the advantage of to determine monetary and ecologically friendly ways
environment. The high quantity of the manufacture of tyres and to reuse tyres [3-5]. The use of waste tyres as a supplement to
their endurance result in tyres being one of the most crucial concrete paving blocks is a potential solution to this
problems of waste management. Tyres are difficult to be recycled problem.Concrete research involves the alteration and conversion
or to be put through additional processing because its structure of certain characteristics of concrete by adding suitable substances
enables it to tolerate severe mechanical and climate conditions. or elements to the material. Waste tyre particles are used as a
Besides that, their physical structure is bulky and their chemical concrete aggregate to overcome or reduce the inelasticity,
composites are not biodegradable. A tyre is able to remain in a fragileness, and low loading toughness of concrete [6]. Flexible and
landfill for up to a century. Tyres do not disintegrate into their malleable waste tyre rubber could develop and enhance the
chemical elements because they have thermoset properties which characteristics of concrete [7-8]. Globally, recycled materials are
increase their melting point. Non-biodegradable substances, such used extensively in highways and rubberized concrete [9-11]. In
as rubber and plastic, build up and interfere with the ecosystem [1]. this paper, the strength and microstructure properties of double
The increasing disposal of motorized vehicles directly leads to the layered rubberized concrete paving block were investigated.
accumulation of waste rubber tyres.A massive amount of waste
tyres is disposed of every year, which leads to many complications
[2].The Department of Environment has prohibited the act of open
burning and illegal disposal of waste tyres to protect the balance of
the ecosystem and decrease the amount of air pollutants. The

73:4 (2015) 85–90 | www.jurnalteknologi.utm.my | eISSN 2180–3722

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2.0 EXPERIMENTAL

2.1 Materials 80 mm

Type I ordinary Portland cement (OPC) was used in this

investigation. Crushed granite with sizes of less than 10 mm were 10 mm
used as coarse aggregate and local natural river sand was used as
fine aggregate in the concrete mixtures. The coarse and fine
aggregates had a specific gravity of 2.50 and 1.65, and water
absorption of 0.49% and 0.70%, respectively. In order to maintain 100 mm
the feasibility of the concrete mixtures, a Glenium C380
superplasticizer was used. This superplasticizer is chloride-free,
and has been formulated to comply with the requirements of ASTM 200 mm
C494 [12] for Types A and F admixtures. Waste tyre rubber
granules used in this study were produced by Yong Fong Rubber,
Malaysia and composed of 48 % styrene-butadience rubber (SBR), Figure 2 Sample preparation
47 % carbon black, 1.9 % extender oil, 1.1 % zinc oxide, 0.8 %,
sulfur, 0.7 % accelerator and 0.5 % strearic acid [13]. Rubber 2.3 Compressive strength
granules were produced by the mechanical shredding process and
the suitability of using it to substitute natural aggregate is In the field of engineering, hardened concrete has to have high
dependent on its size (Figure 1). Two particle sizes of rubber compressive strength. The British Standard test method, BS EN
granules, which are 1 mm to 4 mm and 5 mm to 8 mm, were used 1338Part 3[14] was followed to test the compressive strength of the
in this study as a partial substitute for the fine and coarse aggregate double layered rubberized concrete paving block (DL-RCPB). The
in the production of concrete paving blocks. specimens were soft capped with two pieces of 3 mm plywood and
then a compression machine compressed the blocks with a
maximum capacity of 3000 kN with a loading rate of 2.5 kN/s. The
average of five data recordings were calculated to obtain the
compressive strength.

2.4 Flexural Strength

In order to carry out a flexural test, a transverse force which is

perpendicular to its longitudinal axis was applied onto a rectangular
CPB to generate shear and tensile stresses. A marker was used
perpendicularly to mark a line down the centre of the top of the
blocks. The CCPB and DL-RCPB was tested under a central line
Figure 1 Waste tyre rubber granules
load simply supported over a span of 150 mm. The Tinius Olsen
Universal testing machine was the instrument to test the flexural
2.2 Sample Preparation And Curing Conditions
strength. A displacement of 0.40 mm/min was set. Each data
displays the average of five samples. Two support rods were used
Ordinary Portland cement, coarse and fine aggregate, water, and
admixture (0.3% SP) were used to make two series of concrete to hold the specimen up while the centre point was subjected to the
mixes (Table 1). The ratio for cement: aggregate: sand was 1: 1.7: load until the specimen ruptures (Figure 3). The data acquisition
system immediately documents the deflection and energy
1.5. Series I (Layer 1) used waste tyrerubber granules of 5 mm to 8
absorption, the modulus of rupture (MOR) and the modulus of
mm in size as the coarse aggregate and was 10 mm thick; whereas
Series II (Layer 2) used wastetyrerubber granules of 1 mm to 4 mm elasticity (MOE) were measured [15].
as the fine aggregate and was 70 mm thick. The concrete mix had
a water to cement (w/c) ratio of 0.47. A steel mould of 200 mm in Force
length, 100 mm in width, and 80 mm in depth as shown in Figure
2 was used to manufacture the concrete paving blocks (CPB). The
process of creating both the CPBs began at the same time in two
separate concrete mixers. First, Series II was poured into the steel
mould and vibrated on a concrete vibrating table for 5 seconds.
Strain gauge
Then, Series I was poured on top of the concrete in the steel mould
then vibrated for another 5 seconds. A day after casting, the
concrete blocks were demouldfrom the steel moulds and cured in
air at approximately 27 °C and 65% relative humidity for 7 and 28
days until the testing.
Supporting pin

Figure 3 Flexural strength test (Three point load)

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Table 1 Mix proportion of Double Layer Rubberized Concrete Paving Blocks

Block Label Mix proportion Cement content Water/ Rubber content

(kg/m3) Cement ratio (%)

Series I (C:A:S) Series II (C:A:S) Series I&II Series I&II Series I&II
CCPB 1: 1.7: 1.5 1: 1.7: 1.5 0
DL-RCPB (10 %) 1: 1.5: 1.5 1: 1.7: 1.35 10
DL-RCPB (20 %) 1: 1.35: 1.5 1: 1.7: 1.2 489 0.47 20
DL-RCPB (30 %) 1: 1.2: 1.5 1: 1.7: 1.05 30
DL-RCPB (40 %) 1: 1.0: 1.5 1: 1.7: 0.9 40

CCPB: Control concrete paving block

DL-RCPB: Double layer rubberized concrete paving block

2.5 Splitting Tensile Strength 2.8 Skid Resistance

The Tinius Olsen Universal testing machine with a loading rate of A British Pendulum illustrated in Figure5(a) was used in
0.40 mm/min was used to test the splitting tensile strength. The accordance to BS EN 1338 [14] to evaluate the skid resistance. A
specimen’s length and thickness was measured five times and then slider with a length of 126 ± 1 mm was placed on the block surface.
the average of the measurements was calculated before the air- The surfaces of the specimen and the slider were lubricated with
cured specimens were tested. Two rigid bearers with contact water without removing the slider from its arranged position. The
surfaces of a 75mm radius, and two plywood bearing strips with the pendulum arm and pointer were placed horizontally and then
width of 15 mm, thickness of 3 mm, and length of 230 mm were released using the release mechanism. At the initial stage of the
also used as the specimen was centered on the plywood strips return swing, the pendulum arm was caught and the position of the
(Figure 4). A plywood strip was placed on the specimen before pointer on the scale was recorded to the nearest whole number. The
being loaded according to the British Standard test method, BS EN lifting handle was used to raise the slider to return the pendulum
1338 [14]. arm to its original position. Before releasing the pendulum again,
the surface and the slider were relubricated with water. Each
surface was assessed five times with the pendulum, as shown in
Figure5(b).

a)

3 mm plywood strip

Figure 4 Splitting tensile strength test

2.6 Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM)

The field emission scanning electron microscope(FESEM) method

is a flexible way to examine the microstructure of a particular b)
substance. In this study, the Hitachi SU 8020 FESEM was used to
investigate the properties of the samples. In order to characterize
the morphological properties of the samples, the samples, except
for the powdered ones, were first cut into tiny sizes. After that, the Pendulum slider
samples were arranged horizontally at 180° for a surface analysis,
vertically at 90° for a cross-sectional analysis of the thickness. The
microstructures of the samples were magnified at 1000x with an
operation power of 2 kV.

2.7 Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR)

Waste tyrerubber that were in powder form were analyzed with the
PerkinElmer Spectrum 100 FT-IR spectrometer. 100 mg of
Potassium bromide was used for every mg of the sample during the
FTIR analysis with the spectrometer. A total of 32 scans were
collected from 4000 to 650 cm-1 at 32 cm-1resolutions and averaged. Figure 5 (a) British pendulum (b) Skid resistance test
88 Euniza Jusli et al. / Jurnal Teknologi (Sciences & Engineering) 73:4 (2015) 85–90

3.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

10.0
7 days

Modulus of Rupture, σ
3.1 Compressive Strength 9.5
9.0 28 days
As shown in Figure6, the amount of replaced aggregate is inversely 8.5

(MPa)
proportionate to the compressive strength of the block; as the 8.0
7.5
amount of coarse or fine mineral aggregate increases, the
7.0
compressive strength of the block decreases. Each value displays
6.5
the mean of five measurements. Generally, the blocks with a 10%
6.0
waste tyrerubber content fulfilled the requirement in BS EN
5.5
1338for the 28-day compressive strength test, which is not less
5.0
than 40 MPa for paving blocks of 80 mm thickness to carry traffic
0 10 20 30 40
load. This could be due to the minimal percentage of rubber content Rubber Granule, RG (%)
in the CPB.At the 28th day, the compressive strength of the 10%,
20%, 30%, and 40%DL-RCPB were 46 MPa, 43 MPa, 37 MPa, and Figure 7 Modulus of rupture of DL-CPBs containing waste tyre
29 MPa, respectively. This indicate that the weak interfacial bond
between the rubber and cement mortar due to the hydrophobic
900 28 days
nature of rubber was the main factor of the reduction in strength

Modulus of Elasticity, E (MPa)

[3]. The bonding between rubber and cement were easily overcome 800
7 days
and create cracks when continuous compressive load were applied 700
[16-20]. 600
500
50
400
7 days
Compressive Strength, C (MPa)

45 300
28 days
200
40 100
0
35
0 10 20 30 40
30 Rubber Granule, RG (%)

25 Figure 8 Modulus of elasticity of DL-CPBs containing waste tyre

20 3.3 Splitting Tensile Strength

0 10 20 30 40
Rubber Granule, RG (%) The results of the splitting tensile strength for DL- RCPB were
illustrated in Figure9. The results showed that the splitting tensile
strength of the tested CPB samples was varied between 2.4 and 5.0
Figure 6 Compressive strength of RCPB with 10 mm facing layer MPa as the rubber content and curing age increased from 0 to 40%
and from the 7th to the 28th day of age, respectively. It can be
3.2 Flexural Strength observed that as the waste tyrerubber content of the CPB was
raised, the compressive strength of the block was decreased.
According to Figure7, the MOR values for the blocks werelowered However, the decrease in compression strength is higher than the
when the waste tyre rubber granules was included. As the volume decrease in splitting tensile strength. The CCPB and DL-RCPB up
of replaced aggregate increases, the flexural strength of the block to 30 % waste tyre rubber substitution surpassed the splitting tensile
decreases; when tyre rubbers were replaced at 30% and 40%, the strength requirement of not less 3.6 MPa that was described in BS
flexural strength was reduced by 21% and 23%, respectively. From EN 1338 [14]at the early age (28 days). When the rubber content
the early age, all the specimens achieved the minimum flexural increased to 30% of the total sand volume, the splitting tensile
strength of 3 MPa, which is based on the Concrete Segmental strength of the block was significantly lowered as much as 15%.
Pavement, T-44 [21].The modulus of elasticity (MOE) results When the rubber percentage is further increased to 40%, the
illustrated in Fig. 8 indicate that the additional of waste tyre rubber reduction of the splitting tensile strength was as much as 20%.
may decrease the MOE but still in acceptable range. Trafficked Figure10 shows the results of the splitting tensile strength test on
pavements, unlike sidewalks, require blocks that are able to the CCPB and the DL-RCPB (40 %). As shown in the figure, the
withstand more tension.Therefore, the DL-RCPB were found to be DL-RCPB does not split cleanly into two halves unlike the usual
more suitable than the current CPB due to its higher resistance behaviour of the CCPB, which has a well-defined split.
towards tension.
89 Euniza Jusli et al. / Jurnal Teknologi (Sciences & Engineering) 73:4 (2015) 85–90

5.5
Splitting Tensile Strength, T (MPa) T = -0.0005RG2 - 0.0243RG + 5.0394 7 days
5.0 R² = 0.9897
28 days
4.5

4.0

3.5

3.0 y = -0.0592x + 4.737

R² = 0.9896
2.5

2.0
0 10 20 30 40
Rubber Granule, RG (%)

Figure 9 Splitting tensile strength of DL-RCPBs Figure 12 Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX)

a) b) 3.5 Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR)

Figure 13 demostrate the FTIR spectrum of waste tyre

rubber.Waste tyre rubber were composed of 48 % styrene-
butadience rubber (SBR), 47 % carbon black, 1.9 % extender oil,
1.1 % zinc oxide, 0.8 %, sulfur, 0.7 % accelerator and 0.5 % strearic
acid [13]. It was found that the plane banding appears at 1600 cm-1
wavelength, assigned to the plane vibrating of aromatic =C-H and
C=C groups of Polystrene. The evolution of isoprene, dipentene
and different unsaturated volatile products takes place at higher
Figure 10 Splitting pattern for CCPB (a) and DL-RCPB (40%) (b)
temperatures. The FTIR study showed that from 3600 – 4000 cm-1,
the plane bending vibrations of =C-H of vinyl groups and trans –
3.4 FESEM Image
CH=CH- at 1620 cm-1 of butadiene [22].
The microstructure of the DL-RCPB that was observed with the
FESEM method was illustrated in Figure11. Other than the FESEM 100
examination, the compositions of the rubberized concrete were
qualitatively analyzed by an energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) 99.8

Transmittance (%)
analysis as shown in Figure12. The main elements present were 99.6
carbon, silicon, aluminum, and calcium. The rough and non
uniform surface of the waste rubber particle was observed in Figure 99.4
11.It was found the rough surface of waste tyre rubber was not fully
covered by cement paste which results in lack interaction bonding 99.2
between tyre particle and cement. Voids also can be observed in
Figure 11, due to the hydrophobic nature of rubber that repel water 99
and results in voids once the concrete was hardened. 98.8
4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500
Wavenumbers (cm-1)
Cement Paste Void

Figure 13 FTIR analysis of waste tyre rubber

3.6 Skid Resistance

Overall, Fig. 14 shows that the DL-RCPB has a higher skid

resistance than CCPB because of two main factors: high elasticity
Surface of waste tyre and rough surface texture. These factors cause more friction to
rubber occur as the pendulum goes across the block surface. Additionally,
with rubber content as a constant factor, the British pendulum
number (BPN) for RCPBs that have a dried surface are higher than
a wet surface. This is understandable since friction was reduced on
a slippery surface, thereby lowering skid resistance. The skid
resistance of the concrete block with 40% of rubber was lowered
Figure 11 Surface of the waste rubber particle by 23% whereas the control block’s skid resistance was lowered by
9.8%. However, the control specimens and all double layer RCPBs
produced fulfilled the minimum BS EN 1338 requirement.
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