Mechanical Properties of Steel Fibers and Nanosilica Modified Crumb Rubber Concrete

Crumb rubber concrete (CRC) is an environment-friendly material using crumb rubber as a composition of cement concrete. It provides an alternative method for recycling of waste tires scientifically. CRC exhibits numerous advantages compared to ordinary concrete. However, the application of CRC is limited due to its low compressive and tensile strengths. This paper puts forward a new modified method by adding steel fibers and nanosilica in CRC. Material properties' testing of eighteen concrete mixtures was investigated, considering different strength grades of CRC and crumb rubber contents. In addition, four different steel fiber contents (0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5%) and three different nanosilica content (0%, 1%, and 2%) were taken into consideration. The brittle failure of the CRC can be improved and the mechanical properties can be enhanced according to the test results. More importantly, the modified CRC with 1.0% steel fiber content has relatively high compressive and splitting tensile strengths. Furthermore, the noncompactness of CRC can be effectively improved by nanosilica, enhancing the efficiency of steel fibers simultaneously. Finally, the failure mechanism of the modified CRC is discussed in this paper.

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