Experimental and numerical investigations of the influence of reducing cement by adding waste powder rubber on the impact behavior of concrete

In this study, the effect of reducing cement by proportional addition of waste powder rubber on the performance of concrete under impact three-point bending loading were investigated experimentally and numerically. Concrete specimens were prepared by adding 5%, 10% and 20 % of rubber powder as filler to the mix and decreasing the same percentage of cement. For each case, three beams of $50mm{\times}100mm{\times}500mm$ were loaded to failure in a drop-weight impact machine by subjecting them to 20 N weight from 300mm height, while another three similar beams were tested under static load. The bending load-displacement behavior was analyzed for the plain and rubberized specimens, under static and impact loads. A three dimensional finite-element method simulation was also performed by using LUSAS V.14 in order to study the impact load-displacement behavior, and the predictions were validated with the experimental results. It was observed that, despite decreasing the cement content, the proportional addition of powder rubber until 10% could yield enhancements in impact tup, inertial load and bending load.