RUBBER INCLUSION EFFECTS ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF RUBBER-ADDED COMPOSITE GEOMATERIAL

This paper investigates effects of rubber inclusion on the strength and physical characteristics of rubber.added composite geomaterial (CGM) in which dredged soils, crumb rubber, and bottom ash are reused for recycling. Several series of test specimens were prepared at 5 different percentages of rubber content (i.e. 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% by weight of the dry dredged soil) and three different percentages of bottom ash content (i.e. 0%, 50% and 100% by weight of the dry dredged soil). The mixed soil specimens were subjected to unconfined compression test and elastic wave test to investigate their unconfined compressive strengths and small strain properties. The values of bulk unit weight of the CGM with bottom ash content of 0% and 100% decrease from 14kN/$m^3$ to 11kN/$m^3$ and 15kN/$m^3$ to 12kN/$m^3$, respectively, as rubber content increases, because the rubber had a specific gravity of 1.13. The test results indicated that the rubber content and bottom ash content were found to influence the strength and stress-strain behavior of CGM. Overall, the unconfined compressive strength, and shear modulus were found to decrease with increasing rubber content. Among the samples tested in this study, those with a lower rubber content exhibited sand-like behavior and a higher shear modulus. Samples with a higher rubber content exhibited rubber-like behavior and a lower shear modulus. The CGM with 100% bottom ash could be used as alternative backfill material better than CGM with 0% bottom ash. The results of elastic wave tests indicate that the higher rubber content, the lower shear modulus (G).