Geotextiles and Geomembranes | 2021
Shear strength characteristics of geosynthetic reinforced rubber-sand mixtures
Abstract
Abstract Shear strength characteristics of the geosynthetic-reinforced rubber-sand mixture (RSM) has been investigated by conducting Unconsolidated Undrained (UU) triaxial test. In the first part, a series of UU triaxial tests have been carried out to know the size effect of granulated rubber/tyre chips from seven different rubber sizes. RSM sample that provides higher strength, energy absorption capacity and stiffness is considered as the optimal size and has been used in the investigation on geosynthetic-reinforced RSM. In the second part, shear strength characteristics of geosynthetic-reinforced RSM has been investigated by varying proportions of rubber content (50% and 75% rubber by volume), type of geosynthetic (geotextile, geogrid and geonets), number of geosynthetics (1–4) layers, geosynthetic arrangement and confining pressure. The results demonstrate that RSM reinforced with geosynthetic has enhanced peak strength, failure strength and corresponding axial strain at failure. Fifty percent RSM reinforced by geotextile and 75% RSM reinforced by geonets with 4 layers of reinforcement, led to a maximum increase in shear strength. The strength and energy absorption capacity are doubled for the reinforced RSM s, and reduced the brittleness index values as close to zero, which depends on the type, number of layers and arrangement of geosynthetic.