Experimental Study on Freeze-Thaw Effects on Creep Characteristics of Rubber Concrete

Abstract

Crumb Rubber Concrete (CRC) can exhibit high freeze-thaw resistance, but its long-term creep behavior under various freeze-thaw conditions remains unclear, which is essential for the safety of pavement engineering in the severe cold zone. In this study, the freeze-thaw effects on the creep behavior of CRC under different stress levels were systematically analyzed by testing the compressive strength, the uniaxial creep under different stress levels, and the dynamic elastic modulus. To simulate real conditions of the road environment in the cold area, the lowest temperature of −20°C, six freeze-thaw cycles of 0, 30, 60, 90, 120, and 150, and seven different stress levels of 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, and 0.9 of the compressive strength were employed in this study. The test results showed that the mass loss rate was 6%–11.2% and the compressive strength decreased by 6.51%–47% after 30–150 freeze-thaw cycles. When the stress level reached its critical value, the relative dynamic elastic modulus decreased with the number of freeze-thaw cycles. After 150 freeze-thaw cycles, failure did not appear when the stress level was lower than 50%, above which the creep failure was determined by the stress level and the number of the freeze-thaw cycles. Meanwhile, it was found that the cracking and interfacial debonding between the matrix and the crumb rubber particle were the main reasons for the degradation of CRC creep performance. Finally, a Weibull distribution-based empirical creep damage model was established to predict the failure of CRC, which can enhance its application to related engineering.

Resource Assessment of Limestone Based on Engineering and Petrographic Analysis

“…This shows that this limestone satisfies the water absorption requirements for cement concrete. Freeze-thaw damage is prevalent in rocks with absorption rates greater than 3.0% [75]. Furthermore, the rise in hydrostatic pressure inside the cement or aggregate particles as a consequence of ice crystallization and subsequent volume increase is extremely detrimental [17].…”

The freeze-thaw durability of concrete containing the rubber aggregate of tire waste

“…The air voids alleviate the hydraulic pressure of ice 10 formation in the porous network of rubber samples and reduce their damage compared to PC. Richardson et al [6,16] have shown that rubber composites exposed to 56 freezethaw cycles has a little loss in compression strength compared to control composite. Surely that this innovative property of RATW could be improved the concrete durability in a severe winter climate.…”

“…Waste tire taken a long time to decomposed. Rubber waste materials have a higher resistance to various physical and chemical attacks [6,7]. This behavior could be reinforced the freeze-thaw resistance of concrete in a cold climate.…”

Effect of Recycled Rubber Powder on the Compatibility of Rubber-Cement Paste

“…Recent statistics reported that the waste rubber tires reached 1.5 billion full tires worldwide per year [1,2]. This waste pollutes the natural sources of air, groundwater, and soil, because it contains polluted and toxic elements such as heavy metals [1][2][3]. Reliable environmental references recommended reusing them with building materials as a concrete aggregate [2][3][4][5].…”

“…This waste pollutes the natural sources of air, groundwater, and soil, because it contains polluted and toxic elements such as heavy metals [1][2][3]. Reliable environmental references recommended reusing them with building materials as a concrete aggregate [2][3][4][5]. However, many studies have shown that the inclusion of rubber particles with concrete composite produced a high reduction in their mechanical performance [6,7].…”