Post-Peak Behavior of Rubberized Concrete in Compression

After water, concrete is the most widely used substance on earth. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world with up to 2.8bn tonnes, surpassed only by China and the US, and therefore unfortunately, concrete is not an environmentally friendly material, either to make, or to use, or even to dispose of. To gain the raw materials to make this material, much energy and water must be used, and quarrying for sand and other aggregates causes environmental destruction and pollution. Hence, a large number of researchers have focused on the development of a new concrete materials that would be more suitable with environmental necessity than ordinary Portland concrete. Among these materials, one of the most discussed is rubberized concrete. Waste tire rubber can be incorporated in self-compacting concrete by partially replacing the natural fine and coarse aggregate, reducing consumption of sand and gravel and preserving these natural materials. In addition, recycling and reusing waste tire rubber is one of the major ecological problem of the near future. Replacement of natural aggregate with waste tire rubber can have an undesirable influence on the mechanical properties of self-compacting concrete, i.e., compressive strength, flexural strength, splitting tensile strength, and modulus of elasticity, however. On the other hand, replacing natural gravel or sand with waste tire rubber can improve impact resistance, ductility, and fatigue resistance. This paper presents an overview of the literature investigating recycled waste tire rubber used as a fine and/or coarse aggregate replacement in self-compacting concrete and its influence on several essential fresh and hardened self-compacting concrete properties.