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Waste Management 28 (2008) 21712176

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Promoting the use of crumb rubber concrete in developing countries

Malek K. Batayneh
a

a,*

, Iqbal Marie b, Ibrahim Asi

Fulbright Scholar at CFL, North Carolina State University, Campus Box 7533, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, The Hashemite University, Zarka 13115, Jordan

Accepted 23 September 2007

Available online 3 December 2007

Abstract
The use of accumulated waste materials in third world countries is still in its early phases. It will take courage for contractors and
others in the construction industry to recycle selected types of waste materials in the concrete mixes. This paper addresses the recycling
of rubber tires accumulated every year in Jordan to be used in concrete mixes. The main objectives of this research were to provide more
scientic evidence to support the use of legislation or incentive-based schemes to promote the reuse of accumulated waste tires. This
research focused on using crumb tires as a replacement for a percentage of the local ne aggregates used in the concrete mixes in Jordan.
Dierent concrete specimens were prepared and tested in terms of uniaxial compression and splitting tension. The main variable in the
mixture was the volumetric percentage of crumb tires used in the mix. The test results showed that even though the compressive strength
is reduced when using the crumb tires, it can meet the strength requirements of light weight concrete. In addition, test results and observations indicated that the addition of crumb rubber to the mix has a limited eect toward reducing the workability of the mixtures. The
mechanical test results demonstrated that the tested specimens of the crumb rubber concrete remained relatively intact after failure compared to the conventional concrete specimens. It is also concluded that modied concrete would contribute to the disposal of the nondecaying scrap tires, since the amount being accumulated in third world countries is creating a challenge for proper disposal. Thus,
obliging authorities to invest in facilitating the use of waste tires in concrete, a fundamental material to the booming construction industry in theses countries, serves two purposes.
 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Hazardous waste materials are being generated and
accumulated in vast quantities causing an increasing threat
to the environment. Hazardous materials can be classied
as chemical, toxic or non-decaying material accumulating
with time. The accumulation of rubber and plastic can be
considered non-decaying materials that disturb the surrounding environment. However, a positive method for
disposing of this non-decaying material, such as reuse in
concrete mixes, would have a benecial eect. Recycling
techniques are being developed around the world and
many have proven to be eective in protecting our environment and conserving natural resources (Shayan and Xu,
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 919 5131733; fax: +1 919 5131765.

E-mail address: malekbat@hotmail.com (M.K. Batayneh).

0956-053X/$ - see front matter  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2007.09.035

1999; Rindl, 1998; Pierce and Blackwell, 2003; Segre and

Joekes, 2000). Recycling of materials such as, rubber, glass,
demolished concrete, metal, and plastic represent a clear
model for the proper disposal of waste materials for a better environment (Batayneh and Marie, 2006; Shayan and
Xu, 2004; Marzouk et al., 2007).
It has been reported that the United States alone has
about 275 million scrap tires stockpiled across the country,
with an annual increase of 290 million tires generated per
year (Papakonstantinou and Tobolski, 2006). Research
and development within the industrial world is continuously progressing towards nding new and innovative techniques to recycle waste materials. Worldwide, the use of
recycled materials has been practiced for years in highway
application and in rubberized concrete (Chanbane et al.,
1999; Siddique and Naik, 2004). The latter has gained
acceptance worldwide in the engineering sector, directing

M.K. Batayneh et al. / Waste Management 28 (2008) 21712176

many researchers in recent years to focus on performing

additional research on the use of waste rubber in concrete
(Hernandez-Olivares et al., 2002; Siddique and Naik, 2004;
Lee and Roh, 2006). The consumption of crumb rubber in
highway construction was made compulsory in projects
funded by governments like the USA and France (Marzouk et al., 2007; Li et al., 2004). Savas et al. (1996), Benazzouk and Queneudec (2002), and Paine et al. (2002)
investigated the eect of adding rubber to concrete mixes
on freezing and thawing resistance. They concluded that
there is potential for using crumb rubber as a freezethaw
resistance agent in concrete and that the concrete with
crumb rubber performed better under freezethaw conditions than plain concrete. It has been reported by Hernandez-Olivares and Barluenga (2004) that the addition of
crumb tire rubber to structural high strength concrete slabs
improved re resistance, reducing the spalling damage by
re. Yang et al. (2001) concluded in their research that rubberized concrete can successfully be used in secondary
structural components such as culverts, crash barriers, sidewalks, running tracks, sound absorbers, etc. However,
most of the developing third world countries have yet to
raise their awareness regarding recycling of waste materials
and have not developed eective legislation with respect to
the local reuse of waste materials.
In Jordan, with a small population of just over 5 million,
the number of cars has increased substantially in the last
decade to reach over 700,000 cars in 2006. This quantity
represents the number of cars registered ocially as
reported by the Ministry of Transport in Jordan (2007).
This amount of cars has lead to an increase in the rate of
accumulation of scrap tires throughout the country. However, no current ocial data on the amount of stockpiled
scrap tires in Jordan is available. Encouraging the local
authorities to invest in and support the recycling of waste
tires for use within building materials would provide an
ideal and environmentally friendly disposal method for a
large percentage of the waste tires. Due to rapid population
growth in the recent years and inux of the refugees from
neighboring countries, construction is booming and rapidly
becoming the lead investment in the stock market. Therefore, the demand for building materials has risen accordingly to meet the high demand of the construction
companies. Building on previous research carried out internationally, this study may provide the technical information necessary to improve local awareness of the reuse of
crumb rubber as a substitute for natural aggregates in the
production of concrete. One of the objectives of this paper
is to make these data regarding the basic properties of
modied concrete using crumb rubber in the concrete
mix available to aid in the development of preliminary
guidelines for the use of crumb rubber in concrete. This will
eventually provide information for the eective use of
waste tires in the concrete industry in Jordan. Furthermore, the reuse of the waste tires in construction will contribute to providing environmental-friendly solutions for
the tire disposal problem in Jordan.

In this study, a number of laboratory tests have been

carried out on modied concrete specimens using crumb
rubber obtained from waste tires. Dierent percentages of
crumb rubber are used as a substitute for the natural ne
aggregates used in the concrete mix.
2. Research program
2.1. Recycled scrap tires materials
Four types of scrap tire particles have been classied
by the study carried out by Siddique and Naik (2004),
which were graded according to particle size. These types
consisted of slit tires (the tire is slit into two halves),
shredded/chipped tires (the particle size is 300400 mm
long by 100230 mm wide), ground rubber (19
0.15 mm), and crumb rubber (4.750.075 mm). The
crumb rubber has been reported to have a nominal size
between 4.75 mm (No. 4 sieve) and 0.075 mm (No. 200
sieve). The waste tire particles used in this study were
crumb rubber, which was obtained from a local industrial unit in Jordan. The scrap tires originated from a
scrap yard of tires from dierent types of vehicles (a
combination of cars and trucks) in Jordan. The physical
properties of the crumb rubber relevant for this study are
particle shape and size. Fig. 1 shows the sieve analysis
for both the crumb rubber particles and the ne aggregates (sand) used. The gure indicates that the gradation
of the crumb rubber particles and the sand used fall
between the minimum and maximum limits of the ne
aggregates specied ACI gradation limits. The crumb
rubber particle size varied from 4.75 to 0.15 mm. The
crumb rubber was used in the concrete mix to partially
substitute for ne aggregates (sand) in various percentages of 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100%.
2.2. Mixed materials
The raw materials used for the preparation of the concrete mix consist of Type I Ordinary Portland Cement, nat-

120
100

Cumulative % passing

2172

80
Rubber

60
40

Fine Agg

20
0
9.5

4.75

2.36

1.18

0.6

0.3

Sieve size (mm)

Fig. 1. Sieve analysis of crumb rubber.

0.15

0.075

M.K. Batayneh et al. / Waste Management 28 (2008) 21712176

ural ne aggregate which is specied as natural silica sand,

and coarse aggregates taken from crushed limestone, all of
which were supplied from natural local resources in Jordan. Tap water at room temperature was used in all mixes.
For each crumb rubber percentage, three batches of concrete were prepared. Concrete with no additives was designated as the control mix. Various mix ratios of cement,
water, ne, and coarse aggregates were used to achieve a
workable concrete for a typical in situ concrete following
ACI 211.1-91 (ACI, 2002).
2.3. Specimen preparation and testing
In order to prepare the recycled crumb rubber concrete
specimens, ne aggregates were replaced by waste materials
of crumb rubber in several percentages (20%, 40%, 60%,
80%, and 100%) in separate concrete mixes. For each mix,
cubes of 100 100 100 mm, cylinders of 150 mm diameter
by 300 mm height, and small beams of 100 100 400 mm
were prepared. All specimens were fabricated and then cured
in water for 28 days in accordance with ASTM/C192M-06
Standard practice (ASTM, 2006).
For each concrete mix, slump tests were performed and
recorded at the casting time of the specimens. A Universal
Testing Machine with a maximum load capacity of 300 kN
(load accuracy within 0.5%) was used for testing. After
curing, specimens were tested for compressive strength,
split tensile strength, and exural strength in accordance
with ASTM specied procedures. The compression tests
were performed according to ASTM C39 Standard Test
Method, and the indirect tensile (split tensile) strength tests
were performed as described in ASTM C496 Standard Test

2173

Method. Flexural strength tests were performed according

to ASTM C78 Standard Test Method.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Eect on workability and unit weight
As seen in Table 1, the increase of the crumb rubber
content in the mix resulted in a decrease in both the slump
and the unit weight of the mixtures. However, despite the
decrease in measured slump, observation during mixing
and casting showed that increasing the crumb content in
the mix still produced a workable mix in comparison with
the control mix. Despite the decrease in the unit weight of
the mix (due to the lower unit weight of the rubber), the
unit weight remained within the acceptable range for the
total aggregate volume when up to 20% crumb rubber content was used. This statement is supported by the study carried out by Khatib and Bayomy (1999).
3.2. Eect on strength
The eect of crumb rubber on concrete strength is given
in Table 2, and is demonstrated in Figs. 2 and 3. The relationships between the percentage of crumb rubber content
and the reduction in compressive, tensile and exural
strengths are shown in Fig. 2. It can be seen that the use
of crumb rubber reduced all types of tested strength. As
expected, the higher the rubber content in the mix, the
higher the reduction in compressive (fc), tensile (ft) and
exural strengths. Detailed examination of the gure
shows that increasing the crumb rubber to a limit of 40%

Table 1
Mix proportions and fresh rubber concrete properties
Crumb rubber
content (%)a

0
20
40
60
80
100
a

Mix proportions (kg/m3 of nished concrete)

Water

Cement

Coarse
aggregates

Fine aggregates

Rubber

252
252
252
252
252
252

446
446
446
446
446
446

961
961
961
961
961
961

585
468
351
234
117.2
0.0

0.0
67.51
135.0
202.5
270.0
337.6

Nominal
w/c ratio

Slump
(mm)

Unit weight
(kg/m3)

0.56
0.56
0.56
0.56
0.56
0.56

75.33
60.7
35.7
17.7
10.3
4.7

2399.0
2217.0
2068.3
1987.0
1830.6
1740.6

Percentage replacement by volume.

Table 2
Eect of crumb rubber content on various strength results
Crumb rubber
content (%)

Flexural strength
(MPa)

Splitting tensile strength,

ft (MPa)

Compressive strength,
fc (MPa)

ft/fc
(exp.)

ft = 0.3(fc)2/3
(MPa)

ft/fc
(theo.)

0
20
40
60
80
100

3.68
2.550
2.040
1.380
0.770
0.640

2.820
1.840
1.470
0.940
0.533
0.220

25.330
18.960
12.270
8.070
4.470
2.500

0.111
0.097
0.120
0.116
0.119
0.088

2.587
2.133
1.596
1.207
0.814
0.553

0.102
0.113
0.130
0.150
0.182
0.221

M.K. Batayneh et al. / Waste Management 28 (2008) 21712176

Table 3
Practical range of categories of light weight concrete (Neville, 1995)

100
Flexural

80

Splitting tensile (ft)

Compression (fc)

Density
range
(kg/m3)

Minimum strength (MPa)

Structural light
weight
concrete
Moderate
strength
concrete
Low density
concrete

13501900

17

1900800

717

300800

Used for non-structural purposes

(insulation panel, pavements, blocks,
etc.)

60
40
20
0
0

20

40

60

80

100

Crumb Rubber Content (%)

Fig. 2. Comparison between strength reduction and rubber content.

Strength Reduction (%)

Categories

120
ft

100

Compressive, R

fc
Linear (ft)

80

= 0.9594
2

Linear (fc)

Tensile, R = 0.9626

60
40
20
0
0

20

40

60

80

100

Crumb Rubber Content (%)

Fig. 3. Eect of rubber content on the compressive and splitting tensile

strengths.

maintained a linear relationship between the increase of

crumb rubber and the compressive strength, showing a loss
of about 50% of the compressive strength at 40% rubber
content. The inclination is lesser when rubber content is
above 40%; however, rubber content between 40% and
100% continues to reduce the strength to a maximum loss
of strength of up to 90%. Therefore, this result limits the
use of the modied concrete when strength is the prime
requirement. The relationship between compressive and
splitting tensile strengths is demonstrated in Fig. 3, and
the experimental and theoretical results are presented in
Table 2. It can be seen from the gure that there is a linear
correlation of the two strengths with both strengths showing the same linear rate of strength-loss with increasing
rubber content. In addition, the ratio of splitting tensile
to compressive strength (ft/fc, exp.) based on the experimental data is found to be similar to the ratio of the two
strengths computed theoretically (ft/fc, theo.) using the theoretical equation (ft = 0.3(fc)2/3), as given in Table 2.
Table 3 illustrates the required compressive strength for
the dierent application categories of the structural light
weight concrete (LWC) as specied by Neville (1995),
which has been adopted for building codes in Jordan.
Because of the low specic gravity of the rubber, concrete
with crumb rubber can be classied as light weight concrete. This can also be supported by the conclusions
reported by Pierce and Blackwell (2003). The minimum
strength required for structural light weight concrete is
17 MPa, as shown in Table 3. This strength can be met
when 20% crumb rubber is used in the mix, achieving an

average strength of 18.97 MPa. Therefore, the modied

concrete containing up to 20% crumb rubber can be used
in light weight structural elements. The second category
given in Table 3, requiring compressive strength of 7
17 MPa for moderate concrete, can be also achieved with
a 4060% substitution of rubber for the ne aggregates of
the mix.
Fig. 4 shows the eect of the dierent percentages of
rubber content on the retained compressive and splitting
tensile strengths when compared to the control. The results
indicate that the retained compressive strength for dierent
rubber contents varied from 75% to 10% of the control
specimen, while the retained tensile strength varied from
65% to 8% of the control specimen, as shown in Table 4.
It is notable that the rate of strength reduction with
increasing rubber content was nearly the same in compressive strength as it is in splitting tension strength. This is evident in the bar chart of Fig. 4, in which a trend-line for the
bars has been drawn representing the two strengths of the
bar chart. This gives approximately the same trend of inclination, unlike other studies that suggest that the rate of
strength-loss in compression is higher than the rate of splitting in tension (Papakonstantinou and Tobolski, 2006).
Among other factors, concrete strength, particularly in
compression, depends mainly on paste quality, aggregate
paste bond, and aggregate hardness and density. Substituting the harder dense natural aggregates with a softer, less

120

Control Strength Percent (%)

Strength Reduction (%)

2174

Splitting Tensile (ft)

100
R2 = 0.9594

Compression (fc)
Linear (Compression (fc))

80

Linear (Splitting Tensile (ft))

60
40
R2 = 0.9626

20
0
0

20

40
60
80
Crumb Rubber Content (%)

100

Fig. 4. Variation of strengths with regards to control strength.

M.K. Batayneh et al. / Waste Management 28 (2008) 21712176

2175

Table 4
Percentage retained strengths with relation to the control specimen
Rubber content
(%)

Splitting tensile strength

(ft) (MPa)

ft retained strength with relation

to the control (%)

Compressive strength
(fc) (MPa)

fc retained strength with relation

to the control (%)

0
20
40
60
80
100

2.820
1.840
1.470
0.940
0.533
0.220

100
65.25
52.13
33.33
18.79
8.16

25.330
18.960
12.270
8.070
4.470
2.500

100
74.89
48.44
31.86
13.70
9.99

dense rubber will act as a stress concentrator, causing

microcracking of the concrete matrix, leading to a loss in
strength (Khatib and Bayomy, 1999; Li et al., 2004).
3.3. Stressstrain relationship
The relationship between stress and strain is shown in
Fig. 5 for the dierent rubber contents in the concrete
mix. Two dierent behavior patterns are shown for the
stressstrain curves. The stressstrain behaviors of the
specimens containing rubber of up to 40% behave in a similar trend to the control specimen, but having a smaller
peak. From the gure, it can be observed that there is linear
increase of stresses until it reaches its peak before energy is
released by specimens fracture. For this case, the specimens behaved like a brittle material of which the total
energy generated upon fracture is elastic energy. However,
nonlinear behavior is seen for the other two specimens containing 60% and 80% rubber. Here, once the peak stress is
reached, the specimen continues to yield, as represented by
the branch-line. This behavior is similar to the behavior of
the tough materials having most of its energy generated
upon fracture as plastic energy. Plastic energy is dened
as the amount of energy required to produce a specied
deformation after the elastic range, which increased the
ability of the material to support loads even after the formation of cracks. Therefore, it can be stated that concrete
with a higher percentage of crumb rubber possess high
toughness, since the generated energy is mainly plastic.
30000

Stress ( kPa)

25000
20000

0% rubber

15000

The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the

Hashemite University of Jordan for funding this research
study. The authors would like to thank Engineer Hussain
El Diki for his technical assistance in the laboratory.

40%

5000

The test results of this study indicate that there is great

potential for the utilization of waste tires in concrete mixes
in several percentages, including 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and
100%. Based on these results, the following can be
concluded:
The modied concrete mix using recycled tires performed satisfactorily on various tests, with acknowledgment to the proportional relationship between its rate of
strength-loss and the content of the rubber in the mix. Mixing, casting and compacting the concrete mix using crumb
rubber with local materials can be carried out in a similar
fashion to that of the conventional concrete mix.
Although the strength of modied concrete is reduced
with an increase in the rubber content, its lower unit weight
meets the criteria of light weight concrete that fulll the
strength requirements in Table 3. Although it is not recommended to use this modied concrete in structural elements
where high strength is required, it can be used in many
other construction elements like partition walls, road barriers, pavement, sidewalks, etc. which are in high demand in
the construction industry.
With the addition of the crumb rubber, the reduction in
strength can not be avoided. However, these data provide a
preliminary guideline of the strength-loss of locally produced modied concrete in comparison with the conventional concrete of 25 MPa targeted strength.
The amount of scrap tires being accumulated in third
world countries has created a big challenge for their disposal,
thus obliging the authorities to invest in facilitating the use of
waste tires in concrete as the use of concrete is fundamental
to the booming construction industry in theses countries.
Acknowledgements

20%

10000

4. Conclusions

60%

80%

0
0

0.0005

0.001

0.0015

0.002

0.0025

0.003

0.0035

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Strain

Fig. 5. Relationship between stress and strain for dierent rubber

contents.

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