Elsevier

Construction and Building Materials

Volume 224, 10 November 2019, Pages 584-599
Construction and Building Materials

Durability characteristics of lightweight rubberized concrete

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2019.07.048Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Carbonation test results of rubberized concrete.

  • Half-cell potential test results of rubberized concrete.

  • Service life investigation of rubberized concrete.

  • Estimated service life of 15% rubberized concrete exceeds 50 years.

  • Effect of pretreatment methods on the characteristics of rubberized concrete.

Abstract

This study experimentally investigates the durability characteristics of rubberized concrete up to 30% rubber content. The durability characteristics including the carbonation depth, standard potential, water absorption, and initial rate of absorption of rubberized concrete were investigated. The experimental results have shown that rubberized concrete absorbed more water than conventional concrete, and the water absorption increased with the rubber content. Therefore, rubberized concrete is more susceptible to water, chloride, and chemical attacks. The carbonation depth of rubberized concrete was also higher than that of the conventional concrete and it increased with the rubber contents, indicating more susceptibility to corrosion. Although the estimated service life of rubberized concrete is shorter than that of conventional concrete, with 15% rubber contents it exceeds 50 years according to fib CEB-FIP [1] and AS 3600 [2]. Rubberized concrete thus can be used for structural components with sufficient strength and adequate service life up to 15% rubber content. In addition, the pre-treatment methods with NaOH or water were found to have considerable effects on carbonation depth but marginal effects on the water absorption and standard potential of rubberized concrete.

Introduction

Concrete is made in many different forms based on varying mix design proportions, additives, and methodologies of preparation. With the continual development of concrete technology, more opportunities are made for the incorporation of innovative and environmentally beneficial solutions to be applied to both concrete designs and applications. Recently, used car tyre rubber particles are being utilised to replace normal aggregates to make a green and light-weight concrete, which is called rubberized concrete. This relatively new concrete concept has attracted a lot of attention from researchers and engineers to carry out research on its mechanical properties [3], [4], [5]. There have been many studies focusing on the mechanical properties of rubberized concrete [6], [7], [8].

Meanwhile, the number of studies on the effects of rubber particles on the durability characteristics of concrete is limited. Durability characteristics including electrical resistivity, abrasion, water absorption, corrosion potential, chloride penetration and etc. There is a consensus that the durability of concrete may also be identified by its resistance to penetration of aggressive substances and media [9]. Various types of tests can be adopted to investigate the effects of the rubber aggregate particles on the durability characteristics of rubberized concrete. For example, the transport properties of concrete indicate how materials such as water or salt can move throughout the microstructure and their effects on the degradation of the concrete. The main processes that determine the measurement and classification of transport properties are diffusion, pressure driven flow and electromigration [10]. Throughout both the early stage and hardened conditions, the transport properties were investigated by Guo et al. [11] and Hilsdorf and Kropp [12]. These studies used a resistivity meter to carry out tests on cylinder specimens at 1, 3, 7, 14 and 28-day intervals. The test results suggested that adding rubber particles to the concrete’s mix increased the electrical resistivity which is an indication of the transport connection being lower and overall a greater durability [11]. In addition, there have been more advanced methods which were adopted to investigate the durability of construction materials [13], [14], [15], [16]. Xavier et al. [16] used X-ray fluorescence chemical analysis, differential thermal analysis, and X-ray diffraction analysis to examine the durability characteristic of red ceramic with ornamental stone waste inclusion. Meanwhile, pre-treatment of the rubber surface was also observed to enhance this effect on electrical resistivity, in which the cement coated rubber aggregates marginally outperformed the NaOH pre-treated rubber particles [11]. Other than that, the durability of the rubberized concrete in general has not been well understood, which has prevented the popularity and wide-spread implementation of this relatively new material. This study aims to investigate the durability characteristics of rubberized concrete.

Section snippets

Chloride ion penetration

Corrosion of reinforcing steel in concrete is a key factor that strongly influences the performance of a reinforced concrete structure. One of the primary mechanisms in which this occurs is through chloride ion penetration. This consists of chloride ions infiltrating the pore network within the concrete and results in the neutralisation of the alkaline environment around the embedded steel [15]. Ultimately, this causes the corrosion of the embedded steel due to the oxidation of ferrous atoms.

Mixture design and pre-treatment method

Recycled tyre rubber 1–7 mm in size was incorporated within the concrete as aggregates. Limiting the maximum rubber particle size to 7 mm allowed for a homogenous mixture with adequate compaction ability to be achieved. The rubber particles were sourced from Tyre recycle [44] as shown in Fig. 1. Normal coarse and fine aggregates consisted of 10 mm aggregates, 7 mm aggregates and sand. Water and 10% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) were utilised as the rubber pre-treatment method prior to mixing. This

Compressive strengths and densities

Compression tests were conducted to investigate the effects between the sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and water pre-treatment methods on the compressive strengths according to AS 1012.9 [50]. The experimental results were averaged from three specimens for all mixes after 7 days and 28 days of curing (Table 2).

From these results, it can be seen that the compressive strength of rubberized concrete decreased when increasing the rubber content. At 28 days, the 15% specimens exhibited compressive

Service life estimation

A key consideration in the design of any concrete structure is its service life. Due to its porous and non-homogenous nature, concrete is susceptible to various deterioration mechanisms such as chloride permeation, acid attack, and carbonation. Clifton [65] established that the service life of concrete is stochastic. This is influenced by a number of random variables such as mix design, environmental exposure, material characteristics, and protective cover. Due to this, a probabilistic or

Conclusions

This study experimentally investigates the durability characteristic of rubberized concrete. The main findings can be summarized as follows:

  • 1.

    The inclusion of rubber aggregates led to reduction of the compressive strength of rubberized concrete. The specimens with NaOH pre-treatment method yielded higher compressive strength as compared to those used water pre-treatment method.

  • 2.

    Rubberized concrete had more positive standard potential than that of conventional concrete, indicating the first one is

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgement

The financial support from Australian Research Council via the Australian Laureate Fellowship number FL180100196 is acknowledged. The authors would like to thank Adrian Jones from Tyrecycle for donating rubberized aggregates.

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