Mechanical Behaviour of Steel Slag–Rubber Mixtures: Laboratory Assessment

Rubens Alves (), Sara Rios, Eduardo Fortunato, António Viana da Fonseca and Bruno Guimarães Delgado
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Rubens Alves: CONSTRUCT-GEO, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Sara Rios: CONSTRUCT-GEO, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Eduardo Fortunato: Transportation Department, National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC), 1700-066 Lisboa, Portugal
António Viana da Fonseca: CONSTRUCT-GEO, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Bruno Guimarães Delgado: CONSTRUCT-GEO, Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-20

Abstract: Slags and rubber from end-of-life tires represent a liability to the steel and tire industry, causing economic and environmental problems that are difficult to manage. Transport infrastructures can use these industrial by-products instead of extracting natural raw materials, but the adequate mechanical performance of the materials needs to be assured. This paper addresses the mechanical behaviour of slag–rubber mixtures in the laboratory with CBR, monotonic and cyclic triaxial tests. In addition, light falling weight deflectometer tests were also performed in a physical model. The results were analysed to meet technical specifications from Brazil, Portugal and Australia using railway sub-ballast layers, capping layers or road pavement layers as the base and sub-base to identify the applicability range of slag–rubber mixtures for transport infrastructures. Concerning the analysed parameters, it was demonstrated that slag–rubber mixtures can show resilient behaviour and strength adequate for the support layers of transport infrastructures provided that the rubber content is below 5% in weight and that the slag is milled to comply with the grain size distribution ranges available in the technical specifications of the cited countries.

Keywords: CBR; triaxial tests; resilient modulus; industrial by-products; physical model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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