Building Materials Employing rubber from waster tyre as building material is still considered as 'technology infant'.
There are still lot of studies should be done to obtain more information on these particular application.
Common construction material is concrete mixed.
Thus, in late 90's until now many researchers are interested in making a development on rubberized concrete.
Normal concrete mix is conventional and indispensable in most construction works.
The applications are widely accepted although it has limited properties such as low tensile strength, low energy absorption and ductility and critically associated with shrinkage and cracking.
According to literature produce by many of active researches, the significant main properties resulted from the investigation showed the application of waste tyre rubber might enhance these weak characteristics of concrete.
In recent research, it is proven that by replacing in a certain percentage of original aggregate in concrete mix with waste tyre rubber commonly reduced drying shrinkage, brittleness and elastic modulus thus lead to improvement of durability and serviceability of the mix.
Furthermore, rubber material in concrete lightweight panel is favourable as sound barrier and function as insulation that tend to assist with static charged reduction in walls cause by electrical appliances.
In addition, it is suitable to be used as roof due to the lightweight mix and help control noise plus a good deal cooler.
These include shock-absorbing structural elements in high security structures to resist impact and spalling, in buildings as an earthquake shock-wave absorber and in railway stations as ballast mats for high-speed trains.
In hydraulic structures the precast rubber concrete is suitable to resist cavitations and in liquid-retaining structures.
Pavement and Drainage Tyre rubbers are commonly used as a partial aggregate in asphalt.
Shredded tires are non-biodegradable either above or below the water line under normal conditions.
This provides for a stable road base for a longer time period than some other lightweight fill materials Other than that it also used as partial replacement for bitumen.
In cold climate, tyre chips are being used to reduce frost penetration beneath roads that can cause frost heave resulting cracking to pavement and uneven road surface for their resistance and thaw.
Additionally, waste rubbers are used as crack sealant and repair membranes that utilises the flexibility of rubber to provide improved road maintenance.
In EXPO 2005 Aichi, Japan an experimental project was reveal to the public on the effective use of waste tyre as road bed material in a new pavement called "porous elastic road surface (PERS)".
The pavement in which rubber chips are used instead of crushed stones.
The pavement developed distinct features including drainage, noise reduction, and shock-absorbency and freeze prevention.
The PERS manage to decrease the noise level by 6 - 10 dB compared with conventional asphalt pavement.
The reduction is equivalent to the decreased of one-fourth and one-tenth of current traffic volume.
Whole and shredded tyres have high hydraulic conductivity that makes them appropriate for drainage applications or where free-draining is required.
In United States, some of its states allow tire shred to be used in construction of drain fields for septic system.
Other than that, tyre derive product are also used to construct leachate drainage channels, explosives and explosives stemming, and service channel to collect organic and oil trapped material.
In the last part of this series, I will touch on the applications of waste tyre in civil engineering applications as lightweight material, flooring material, fuel, and coastal applications.