The use of shredded waste tires to improve the geotechnical engineering properties of sands

A new geo-environmental approach was proposed to use waste tires in certain engineering applications and thereby reduce the potential impact on the environment. This paper presents a laboratory study on the effect of shredded tires on the physical properties of some sands. Shredded tires were passed through US sieve size 4 and mixed with three different types of sands with varying gradations. Each type of sand was mixed with four different percentages of shredded tires: 10, 20, 30 and 40% by dry weight. Direct shear tests were conducted to study the effect of the shredded tires on the shear strength properties of sands, such as angle of internal friction and shear strength. The addition of shredded waste tires increased both the angle of internal friction and the shear strength of the sands. Additionally, a prediction model was developed to calculate the shear strength of sand due to increasing shredded tire content. The shredded tires improved some engineering properties of sand.