Construction and Building Materials 176 (2018) 700–709

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Construction and Building Materials

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Evaluating the effect of using shredded waste tire in the stone columns
as an improvement technique
N. Shariatmadari a, S.M. Zeinali a,⇑, H. Mirzaeifar a, M. Keramati b
a
School of Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, P. O. Box 16846-13114, Narmak, Tehran, Iran
b
School of Civil Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, P. O. Box 3619995161, Shahrood, Iran

h i g h l i g h t s

Utilizing tire wastes in geotechnical applications is a reasonable way to reduce stockpiles of disposed tires.

Shredded waste tires can be used as a partial substitution for stone column materials.

Using long planar shape tire shreds improves the axial bearing capacity of stone column by 30%.

Results lead to reusing tire waste, improvement in stone columns performance and a decrease in construction costs.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this paper, shredded waste tires are used as a substitution for gravel materials and their effect on stone
Received 24 October 2017 column’s behavior is investigated. An experimental study is carried out on three sizes of tire shreds,
Received in revised form 1 May 2018 including ‘‘Fine tire”, ‘‘Medium tire”, and ‘‘large tire”. The medium-sized tire shred has the same size
Accepted 9 May 2018
as the gravel materials and the other sizes are selected smaller and larger. Thirteen series of large scale
direct shear, large oedometer, and constant head permeability tests are carried out in three different vol-
umetric mixture proportions of gravel and tire shreds. The results of the large scale direct shear box and
Keywords:
large oedometer tests show an increase in the loading capacity of stone columns for 20% of tire content,
Environmental geo-technique
Waste tire shred
however, for tire mixing ratios greater than 20%, the loading capacity of stone column is reduced.
Stone column Furthermore, 20% of medium-sized tire shreds enhances the loading capacity by 30% and 15%, respec-
Improvement of soil tively, with no significant change in permeability. Therefore, it is concluded that the best performance
Loading capacity of gravel tire shred admixture is achieved by the medium-sized tire shreds. Eventually, utilizing tire shred
Permeability as partial replacement for gravel materials is an economic way to enhance the loading capacity of stone
columns and also to solve environmental problems.
Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction prevent environmental problems. Tire shreds have been success-

The aim of this study is to use tire shreds and tire crumbs as an
alternative material for stone column construction. Tire waste dis-
posal is an environmental issue in the industrialized countries
around the globe. The huge amount of stockpiles of tire waste
and consequent environmental problems of their disposal,
increased the necessity of investigating new applications for these
waste materials. Due to the unique properties of tire such as low
density, high strength, hydrophobic nature, and high frictional
strength, it has gain interest as a valuable engineering resource
[1]. Geotechnical engineering has a great potential to reutilize tire
wastes and take advantage of their characteristics in order to
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: sm_zeinali@civileng.iust.ac.ir (S.M. Zeinali).
fully used for road embankment [2], improvement of slope stability
[3], drainage layer and etc.
A great deal of research has put forth effort to investigate new
applications of tire wastes. According to Rao and Dutta’s [4], the
CU triaxial test results of sand and tire shreds mixtures with 20%
tire content sustains higher stress values compared to pure sand.
Tuncan’s [5] studied tire-sand mixtures and showed that adding
tire shreds to asphaltic concrete leads to a reduction in cracks
expansion. Foose et al. [6] reported a friction angle of 30° in a
305 mm direct shear test for tire shreds with the size of 50–150
mm. Vinot et al. [7] reported a 3°–6° increase in the friction angle
value and the optimum tire content was estimated to be%30.
Utilizing tire wastes for soil improvement is another application
of these waste material in geotechnical engineering. Among soil
improvement techniques, stone column is one of the most

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.05.090
0950-0618/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 N. Shariatmadari et al. / Construction and Building Materials 176 (2018) 700–709 701

Nomenclature

rro Total in situ lateral stress (initial) Gs Specific gravity of gravel

Ec Elastic modulus of the soil Vd Direct shear box volume (total volume)
C Undrained shear strength Vt Tire content volume as a fraction of total volume
# Poisson’s Ratio Vs Gravel volume as a fraction of total volume.
Dr Relative density LL Liquid Limit
cdmatrix Matrix density PL Plastic Limit
cdmin Minimum density of gravel PI Plastic Index
cdmax Maximum density of gravel D10 Effective grain size
GL Specific gravity of tire content D50 Medium grain size

well-known and cost effective techniques. Stone column improves
the strength and deformation capacities of the soft soil by acting as
a reinforcement and a drainage element [8]. This technique is suit-
able for flexible structures such as road embankments and storage
tanks and is mostly installed on loose sand or soft marine clay [9].
Many researches studied the load transfer mechanism of stone col-
umns [10–13]. Some researches have investigated stone columns
as liquefaction countermeasures through field experiments [14–
17] and numerical studies [8,18]. Hughes and Withers [11] esti-
mated the ultimate loading capacity considering bulging failure
for a single column and using elastic-plastic theory. Many studies
investigated methods to enhance stone column stiffness through
encasing [19–23] or inserting nails or steel bars [24,25]. Ayothira-
man et al. [26] investigated tire shreds as an alternative material
for stone columns. They replaced 20%, 40%, and 60% of gravel with
tire chips. It was observed that replacing 20% of gravels in stone
column with tire chips leads to the highest axial bearing capacity.
In this study, a series of large scale direct shear box tests are
carried out to investigate the effects of adding tire shreds on
mechanical properties and deformation of stone columns. For this
purpose, three sizes of tire shreds including ‘‘Fine tire”, ‘‘Medium
tire”, and ‘‘large tire” are considered to investigate the influence
of tire size. Furthermore, tire contents of 20%, 40%, and 60% are
selected to study the effects of different mixing ratios. Specimens
are placed in a large Oedometer with the stone column in the cen-
ter and the soft soil surrounding the stone column. Finally, by using
the constant head test method, the permeability of each tire-gravel
mixture is calculated.
2. Experimental program
2.1. Materials
2.1.1. Shredded tire and stone column gravel materials
The shredded tire used in this study is provided by Azar-Sum Company. Three
sizes of tire shreds are selected, including granular ‘‘Fine”, planar ‘‘Medium”, and
cubic ‘‘large”. Tire shreds are graded using standard sieves and their corresponding
categories are shown in Fig. 1. Edincliler et al. [27] classified tire waste products
with respect to their size and processing technique into four categories: tire chips,
tire shreds, tire buffings, and tire crumb. According to Edincliler et al. [27], shape
and processing technique of the tire influences the mechanical properties of the
soil-tire mixtures. In this study, fine tire is classified as tire crumb and medium
and large tires are classified as tire chips with no wire. Specifications of rubber used
in this study is shown in Table 1.
ASTM D854[28] is used to determine the specific gravity of fine tire shreds. On
the other hand, ASTM C127[29] is used for determining the specific gravity of gravel
and the other sizes of tire shreds. The specific gravity of tire shred and gravel are 1.1
and 2.65, respectively. Note that gravel is graded similar to medium tire.
2.1.2. Soil
Stone column is one of the improvement methods for fine clayey soils. The
stone materials act as the reinforced element and drainage system in the fine soil.
According to Fig. 2, in this research, a fine clayey surrounding soil is selected to
model the stone column behavior. ASTM D422 [30] and D4318 [31] are used to
determine the physical properties of the soft soil, including the particle size distri-
bution, Atterberg Limit, and plasticity index (PI). The properties of the soil and par-
ticle size distribution are presented in Table 2 and Fig. 3.
2.2. Sample preparation
For the sake of convenience, mixtures of tire shreds and gravel are hereinafter
referred to as a combination of the tire size, gravel, and the percentage of tire vol-
ume. Each sample is named with three symbols, XGZ where X represents the size of
tire content, G represents gravel in the mixture and Z represents tire content per-
centage. For example, FG20 refers to a mixture with %20 of fine tire shreds content,
while G00 refers to a mixture without any shredded tire. Manufactured samples
and percentage of tire volume for each sample are given in Table 3. In this study,
tire contents of 20%, 40%, and 60%, are selected based on the study conducted by
Ayothiraman et al. [26]. In samples preparation process, gravel and tire contents
are selected in a manner to obtain a target relative density of 75% for all samples.
For each mixture, the minimum and the maximum densities are calculated in accor-
dance with ASTM D4253 [32], D4254 [33]. To estimate the weight of stone aggre-
gates and tire content, Eqs. 1–3 are used. In Eq. (1), matrix density is assumed in
order to obtain the desired relative density.
  
cdmatrix  cdmin cdmax
Dr ¼ ð1Þ
cdmax  cdmin cdmatrix
Ws Ws
cdm ¼ ¼ ð2Þ
V t  V l GGsl B  L  h  V l GGsl
 
GL
Wl ¼ R Ws ð3Þ
GS
Where, Dr is the relative density and cdmatrix denotes the matrix density. cdmin and
cdmax refer to the minimum and maximum density of gravel, respectively. GL and
Gs , represent the specific gravity of tire and gravel, respectively. In addition, V t is
the direct shear box volume (total volume) and V l is the tire content volume as a
fraction of the total volume.
2.3. Tests
2.3.1. Direct shear test
The gravel-shredded tire mixtures with tire contents of 0%, 20%, 40%, and 60%
with three sizes of tire shreds are manufactured and their shear resistance are
determined using direct shear test. Large-scale direct shear device with the dimen-
sions of 30 cm  30 cm  15 cm is used to evaluate the shear strength of gravel-
shredded tire mixtures. This testing machine facilitates testing the larger sample
particles of shredded tire according to ASTM D3080 [34]. Fig. 4, shows the test setup
including large direct shear test apparatus, LVDTs, computer, and data logger sys-
tem that are used in this research.
Compaction of the mixtures is conducted by using a plastic hammer to hit the
steel plate placed on top of the specimen until it reaches the target unit weight.
Direct shear test are carried out using normal stresses of 20, 50, and 100 kPa. Note
that the vertical deformation of the specimen is recorded by using an LVDT,
installed on the top of the upper shear box. Furthermore, a shear rate of
2 mm/min is selected according to ASTM D3080 [34]. The test is stopped when
the shear force becomes constant or the shear displacement reaches 30 mm or 10
percent horizontal strain is obtained.
2.3.2. Bearing capacity test
In this investigation, a large oedometer testing device with the diameter of
500 mm is used to evaluate the bearing capacity of gravel-shredded tire mixture.
This device is designed and constructed in Geo-Environmental laboratory of Iran
702 N. Shariatmadari et al. / Construction and Building Materials 176 (2018) 700–709

Fig. 1. Shredded tire sizes.

Table 1 A stone column with the diameter of 90 mm and the height of 400 mm is
Tire shreds specifications. installed in the soft soil. The sample consists of a thin-walled polyvinyl chloride
(PVC) pipe with 90 mm diameter, placed in the center of the tank and surrounded
Tire group Size Shape Aspect Ratio with a compacted soil. After installing the pipe and compacting the surrounding
Fine 2–4.75 mm Granular 2 soil, about 1/5 of the mixture is poured inside the pipe. Then, a plastic hammer is
Medium 4.75–9.5 mm Planar 2 used to gently hit the walls of the pipe to compact the mixture. This process is
Larg 9.5–19 mm Cubic 2 repeated until the mixture reaches the target unit weight. To achieve a uniform unit
weight, the compaction process is carried out with a 2 kg circular steel tamper and
10 blows to each layer with 100 mm falling drop.
After preparing the stone column, a circular steel plate with the diameter of 90
mm is placed on top of the stone column as a loading cap. Afterwards, the upper
head of the oedometer is closed and the hydraulic jack is slowly lowered to reach
the loading cap. According to ASTM D1143 [36], the test is started at 30 kPa stress
and the corresponding displacement rate is kept below 0.25 mm/min. The load is
applied incrementally at constant intervals and the displacement is recorded at a
constant load. The test is stopped when the displacement reaches 50 mm. It should
be noted that due to the rapid loading, this test stimulated the undrained condition.

2.3.3. Permeability test

As previously mentioned, due to high permeability of the stone columns, these
elements are effectively used to prevent soil liquefaction. Hence, the effect of using
tire shreds as an alternative material on stone column’s permeability must be inves-
tigated. A constant head permeability testing device is utilized in order to evaluate
the permeability of the mixture. In this apparatus, a pump is used to achieve a
steady state and constant head flow in the system.
According to ASTM D2434 [37], gravel-tire shreds mixture is placed into a cylin-
der in 3 cm layers. Each layer of soil is uniformly mixed and then a plastic hammer
is used to gently hit the walls of the cylinder to compact the mixture. This process is
continued until the mixture reaches the desired unit weight. When the specimen is
saturated, water outlet and inlet tubes on top and bottom are installed. Note that
Fig. 2. Surrounding soil and stone column modeling in the Oedometer loading box. the permeability flow system, including the tubes and valves, should be free of
air. A pump is used to achieve a steady state and constant head flow in the system.
The difference in manometers level is recorded in order to reach the constant head
conditions specified in ASTM D2434.
Table 2
Soil Properties.

Properties Value 3. Results and discussion

Liquid limit 27%
Plastic Limit 17% 3.1. Shear strength
Plastic index 10%
% Sand 19% Fig. 6 shows the results of direct shear test with 50 kPa normal
% Silt 27.6% loading conducted on medium-sized tire and gravel mixtures. The
% Clay 53.4%
Unified Classification CL
results of shear test with other normal loadings are the same, but
not demonstrated due to space constraints.
The results show that mixtures with more tire content demon-
strate more ductile behavior. For specimens with tire content of
University of science and technology (GEL-IUST) by Mokhtari et al. [35]. The 20%, a slight increase in the maximum shear force and the corre-
designed steel oedometer cell has an internal diameter of 490 mm, a height of sponding shear displacement is observed. In mixtures with 40%
500 mm, and a thickness of 6 mm and it is designed to accommodate large speci- and 60% tire content, the maximum shear force decreases and
mens with different thicknesses [35]. Therefore, this device is very suitable for test-
ing and evaluation of the vertical stress-strain behavior and bearing capacity of
again deformation in peak shear stress is increased. Furthermore,
large-sized stone columns. Fig. 5 represents a schematic view of the large oedome- for higher values of tire content, the specimen shows significant
ter device, used in this research. shear deformation with constant shear force.
 N. Shariatmadari et al. / Construction and Building Materials 176 (2018) 700–709 703

100

90

80

70

60

Passing (%)
50

40

30

20

10

0
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100
Grain Size (mm)
Fig. 3. Particle size distribution curve.

Table 3 gravel-tire shred mixtures exhibit similar behavior for vertical dis-
Manufactured samples. placement: demonstrating initial compression and dilation by
Symbol Size of the tire Tire content (%) Gravel content (%) increasing shear displacement. Results show that fine and medium
G00 – 0 100
tire shreds both decrease the gravel dilation potential. Due to their
F100 Fine 100 0 size, shape, and compressibility, the same results as the sand-
FG20 Fine 20 80 gravel mixtures by Simony et al. [38] are obtained. The reason of
FG40 Fine 40 60 this behavior could be due to the fact that in mixtures with fine
FG60 Fine 60 40
and medium tire content, gravel particles are in a floating state
M100 Medium 100 0
MG20 Medium 20 80 and can move within the mixture when subjected to shear. Fig. 7
MG40 Medium 40 60 illustrates that utilizing large tire shreds changes the mixture gra-
MG60 Medium 60 40 dation and results in an increase in dilation potential of gravel.
L100 Large 100 0 Also, increasing values of tire content causes the mixture dilation
LG20 Large 20 80
to increase. This is due to the cubic shape of the large tire shreds
LG40 Large 40 60
LG60 Large 60 40 and their highly elastic behavior.
Fig. 8 shows Mohr-Coulomb curves for three mixing ratios of
fine-sized tire shreds. The results for other tire shred sizes are
The typical volume change for mixtures with fine- to large- not presented, however, they demonstrated similar trends. The soil
sized tire shreds, under normal loading of 50 kPa, are illustrated properties including c and u are calculated from the peak strength
in Fig. 7. As it is observed, both specimens without tire shred and values and are provided in Table 4.

Fig. 4. Large direct shear device, LVDTs, computer, and data logger system.
704 N. Shariatmadari et al. / Construction and Building Materials 176 (2018) 700–709

Fig. 5. Large oedometer apparatus [35].

   
70 Ec ð1 þ sin ;sÞ
qult ¼ rro þ c 1 þ lne ð4Þ
2cð1 þ #Þ ð1  sin ;sÞ
60

Where, rro is the total in-situ lateral stress (initial), Ec denotes the
50 elastic modulus of the soil, C refers to the undrained shear strength,
and # is the Poisson’s ratio. Eq. (4) explains that any changes in fric-
Shear Stress (kPa)

40 tion angle of stone column materials only change the value of

30
20
10
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Shear Displacement (mm)
Fig. 6. Stress–strain behavior of gravel and medium-sized tire shreds mixtures.
For all tire shred sizes, the internal friction angle value u
increased at 20% tire content. The u value increased from 49.4°
for pure gravel to 52° for MG20 sample. For FG20 and LG20 sam-
ples, 0.1° and 0.5° increase in internal friction value is observed
compared to the control sample, respectively. The highest reduc-
tion in friction angle is for LG60, decreasing from 49.4° for pure
gravel to 37°.
For each size, the highest c value is obtained for 60% tire con-
tent. The cohesion intercept, c, increased from 0 kPa to 4.4 kPa
for LG60.
Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 illustrate that with increasing the tire content
up to 20%, friction angle increases, however, for higher tire con-
tents, reduction in friction angle is observed. On the other hand,
higher tire content leads to higher cohesion values. With regard
to the effect of tire shred size, for a constant tire content, the mix-
ture with medium tire shreds has a higher friction angle, while the
mixture with large tire shreds has a higher cohesion value.
3.2. Bearing capacity
As stated before, many researchers reported an increase in
sand-tire mixture’s friction angle, however, no study has been con-
ducted on gravel-tire mixtures. Hughes and Withers [11] estimated
the ultimate loading capacity for stone column:
 
ð1þsin £sÞ
ð1sin £sÞ
, which represents the passive coefficient Kp. To obtain
the optimum tire content in which the stone column has the best
MG20
performance, the following influence factor is defined:
MG40
MG60
qui kpi
G00
Fi ¼ ¼ ð5Þ
M100 q u s k ps
35 40
Where F i is the influence factor for sample i, qui and qus refer to
the ultimate bearing capacity of stone column with sample i mate-
rial and stone column with no tire content, respectively. kpi and kps
are the passive coefficient for stone column with sample i material
and stone column with no tire content, respectively. To evaluate
the effect of the tire shreds content on loading capacity of stone
columns based on the results of loading tests, improvement factor
is defined as the ratio of the ultimate bearing capacity of each sam-
ple to the ultimate bearing capacity of stone column with no tire
content according to the results of large oedometer tests.
qui
Fi ¼ ð6Þ
q us
Where F i is the factor of improvement for sample i, qui denotes the
ultimate bearing capacity of stone column with sample i material,
and qus refers to the ultimate bearing capacity of stone column with
no tire content. The resulting improvement factor and influence fac-
tor are listed in Table 5.
In Fig. 11, the axial stress-deformation is presented. As it is
observed, the settlement increases with increasing values of the
axial stress. The stone column with 20% tire content has a higher
stress and the differences between 20% tire content and other tire
contents increases as the axial stress increases. The same trend is
observed for other sizes of tire shreds.
Ayothiraman et al. [26] conducted five tests on stone columns
in a loading tank using 10 mm tire chips and 10 mm gravels to pro-
duce mixtures. Therefore, the results can be compared with MG
mixtures. In their investigation, the effect of tire shreds size and
shape on the stone column performance was not studied.
 N. Shariatmadari et al. / Construction and Building Materials 176 (2018) 700–709 705

a 1.8 Research conducted by Edincliler et al. [39] Showed that adding

granular tire to soil does not improve the strength of the soil and
1.6 G00
direct shear test results on soil-tire mixtures are unreliable. Large
Vercal Displacement (mm)

1.4 FG20 oedometer tests show that 20% fine tire content, increases the axial
1.2 FG40 bearing capacity of the stone column, but, no significant improve-
1
FG60 ment is observed in sample’s shear strength. Generally, axial bear-
F100 ing capacity and shear strength are reduced with increasing values
0.8
of the tire content. The size of granular tire is smaller than the
0.6 voids in the control gravel mixture and inclusion of fine tire only
0.4 fills the voids and decreases the interlocking of gravel particles.
0.2 On the other hand, medium tire with negligible thickness acts as
extensible fiber, increasing the shear zone area and the shear
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 strength of the mixture. This is due to the tensile strength and
-0.2 elongation of the medium tire [40]. Mobilizing tensile strength is
Shear Displacement (mm)
also observed in large tire mixtures, but while elongation occurs
in one dimension the other dimension of cubic large tire shortens.
b 2
This leads to larger deformations in stone column under lower
axial loads. As tire content increases, the shear strength and axial
G00
bearing capacity of the mixtures decreases, this is due to the slid-
Vercal Displacement (mm)

1.5
MG20
ing of tire shreds in their contact points which reduces the effi-
MG40 ciency of gravel tire mixture [41].
1 MG60 To recapitulate according to Table 5, it is evident that using 20%
M100 volumetric tire content leads to an increase in the ultimate bearing
0.5 capacity, due to the improvement in interlocking between aggre-
gates and extension of rubber. Furthermore, medium tire shreds
with negligible thickness and aspect ratio greater than unity,
0 increase the bearing capacity significantly. The difference between
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
the obtained results is due to the different types of loading and dif-
-0.5 ferent failure mode assumptions.

Shear Displacement (mm)

c 4 3.3. Permeability

3.5 G00 As stated before, permeability is one of the main features of

LG20 stone column materials. Hence, the effect of adding tire shreds
3
LG40 on permeability of stone columns is investigated in this section.
Vercal Displacement (mm)

2.5 LG60
L100
2 ability ‘Ks’.
1.5
1 shreds have much smaller voids compared to the control specimen,
0.5
0
0 5 10 15 20
-0.5
Shear Displacement (mm)
Fig. 7. Vertical displacement versus shear displacement (a) fine (b) medium and (c)
large size tire shreds mixtures.
In Fig. 12, the factor of improvement for specimens with differ-
ent tire shreds percentages and sizes versus the specimen with
100% gravel is illustrated. According to the test results, the stone
columns with 100% tire content, shows a lower loading capacity
which is less than the loading capacity of the specimen with 0% tire
content. It is observed that 20% tire content improves the loading
capacity regardless of the tire shred size and the maximum
improvement is 30% for MG20. With increasing tire content, the
bearing capacity decreases. For a constant tire content, mixtures
of gravel and medium tire show higher ultimate capacity. An
increase in tire content leads to higher ductility and compressibil-
ity, however, a reduction is observed in axial loading capacity.
Table 6 provides the permeability of mixtures and compares the
ratio of mixture permeability ‘Km’ to the control mixture perme-
All tests are conducted in a constant relative density. According
to Table 5, it is observed that specimens with fine and medium tire
due to the smaller size of the fine tire shreds and larger aspect ratio
and long plane shape of the medium tire shreds. In fact, adding
gravel to pure fine and medium tire shreds leads to the formation
25 30 35 of larger voids and thus, permeability increases. On the other hand,
adding large tire shreds changes the gradation of the mixture, and
as a result, larger voids are observed in LG mixtures and permeabil-
ity increases up to 83% for LG60. Hence, an increase in tire content
for fine and medium tire shreds causes reduction in permeability,
while in large tire shreds and gravel mixtures, increasing values
of tire content increases the permeability. For a constant tire con-
tent, the larger size of tire shreds leads to higher permeability val-
ues. Furthermore, according to Table 5, it is observed that adding
20% medium shreds to the mixture does not change the ratio of
the mixture permeability to the control permeability.
4. Summary and conclusions
In this paper, the effects of using waste tire in stone columns, as
a partial replacement of gravel are investigated. For this purpose,
three sizes of tire shreds including fine, medium, and large, are
selected and added to the mixture in three volumetric percentages
of 20%, 40%, and 60%. Large direct shear tests and loading tank tests
706 N. Shariatmadari et al. / Construction and Building Materials 176 (2018) 700–709

MG20 G100 MG40 MG60 M100

140

120

100

80
(Kpa)
T

60

40

20

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
σ(Kpa)
Fig. 8. Mohr-Coulomb criteria line for medium tire size and gravel mixtures.

loading tank test shows that a mixture with 20% tire shreds con-
Table 4 tent has the highest axial bearing capacity.
Mechanical parameters of tire-gravel mixtures. Based on the experiments results, the following conclusions are
Sample Cohesion (kPa) Friction Angle (degree) drawn:
G00 0 49.4
FG20 0.8 49.5 1. The improvement of shear strength and axial bearing capacity
FG40 1.3 44.7 of stone columns is dependent on the shape and percentage
FG60 3.1 37.5 of the tire content.
F100 5.2 35.45
2. The internal friction angle of the unreinforced gravel is 49:4 .
MG20 0.5 52
MG40 2 46 The highest friction angle is obtained using 20% of planar
MG60 4.2 39 shaped medium tire, which is equal to 52 .
M100 6.3 37.4 3. With regard to the tire shred size, replacing 20% of gravel with
LG20 2.2 50 medium tire shreds, which have the same size of the gravel,
LG40 3 44
LG60 4.4 37
leads to 30% higher value of bearing capacity. Moreover, the
L100 6.9 35.4 addition of 40% and 60% tire content for each size, causes reduc-
tion in bearing capacity. Experimental results are in good agree-
ment with Hughes and Withers (1974) bearing capacity
formula.
are carried out to study the effect of tire inclusion on mechanical 4. No significant improvement in mechanical and physical proper-
properties of stone column and its permeability. An optimum per- ties of stone columns with fine granular tire is observed. Fur-
centage and effective size for tire content are determined, which thermore, improvement in shear strength of mixtures and
could be very useful, especially in field applications. Results of axial bearing capacity of stone column with large cubic tire

1.1
Fricon angle of mixture / fricon angle

1.05
1
0.95
of pure gravel

0.9
0.85 Fine re
0.8 Medium Tire
0.75 Large Tire
0.7
0.65
0.6
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Tire Content (%)

Fig. 9. Normalized Friction angle of tire-shredded mixtures.

 N. Shariatmadari et al. / Construction and Building Materials 176 (2018) 700–709 707

Cohesion (kPa)
5

4 Fine Tire

3 Medium Tire
Large Tire
2

0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Tire Content (%)
Fig. 10. Cohesion trends for mixtures.

Table 5 shreds is negligible. Tire shreds with planar shape are the most
Results from a) Loading tank test b) Hughes and Withers equation c) Ayothiraman and effective due to their aspect ratio, which is higher than unity,
Soumya. and insignificant thickness which made the tire shred act as
Sample Factor of Influence Ayothiraman and fiber inclusion in reinforced soils.
Improvement Factor Soumya 2015 [26] 5. According to permeability test results, it can be concluded that
(a) (b) (c) mixtures with 20% tire shreds with the same size of the gravel
G00 1 1 1 particles, demonstrate higher bearing capacity with no reduc-
FG20 1.2 1.01 – tion in permeability.
FG40 0.94 0.79 –
FG60 0.9 0.56 –
F100 0.67 0.32 –
Partial replacement of stone column aggregates with tire shreds
MG20 1.3 1.16 1.36 is an effective way of reusing waste tire and protection of environ-
MG40 1 0.84 1.05 ment. Improved performance of stone columns with tire shreds is
MG60 0.97 0.6 1 observed. Furthermore, a reduction in stone column aggregates
M100 0.72 0.56 0.82
leads to a light-weight structure and reduction in costs of install-
LG20 1.21 1.03 –
LG40 0.94 0.76 – ment. It is recommended to verify the test results of this study
LG60 0.9 0.55 – with in-situ tests on stone columns containing waste tire. Besides,
L100 0.69 0.32 – dynamic tests such as shaking table test is recommended to estab-
lish a comprehensive perspective, before implementing tire shreds
in stone columns in field.

1.0

0.9

0.8
^2)

0.7

0.6 MG20
AXIAL TENSION (

MG40
0.5
MG60
0.4
M100
0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
DISPLACEMENT(CM)

Fig. 11. Axial tension vs displacement for medium tire shreds and gravel mixtures.
708 N. Shariatmadari et al. / Construction and Building Materials 176 (2018) 700–709

1.35
1.3
1.25
1.2
Factor of improvement 1.15
1.1
1.05
1 Fine Tire
0.95 Medium Tire
0.9 Large Tire
0.85
0.8
0.75
0.7
0.65
0.6
0 20 40 60 80 100
Tire Content (%)
Fig. 12. Factor of improvement for different samples.

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