Waste rubber - sustainable pavements solution?

Abstract

Cement bound base courses increase pavement bearing capacity and resistance to detrimental effects of frost along with being a good base for surface courses. Due to its stiffness, cement bound base courses reduce vertical deflections and tensile stress in asphalt layers thus reducing fatigue and appearance of alligator cracks in asphalt. But, in order to generate required layer strength and stiffness of cement bound base, appropriate amount of cement is necessary. This in turn can cause shrinkage induced cracks which spread towards surface courses and cause accelerated deterioration of pavements. To prevent rapid deterioration of pavement surface layers and occurrence of reflective cracking, incorporation of recycled rubber from waste tire in mixtures for cement bound base courses is currently being considered. In this paper a short review of waste tire application and its behaviour in pavement structures will be shown. In addition, planned methodology and activities that are going to be conducted with in a research project are going to be discussed.