International Journal of Advanced Innovative Technology

in Engineering (IJAITE), Vol. 3, Issue 5, Sept-2018 ISSN: 2455-6491

“ENHANCING THE BEARING CAPACITY OF B.C.SOIL BY USING SHREDDED RUBBER
TYRE”
1
MR. GAURAV R. MANGATE
PG Student ( Geotechnical Engg ), Department of civil Engineering, Dr. Rajendra Gode Institute of Technology and
Research Amravati, India
grv.mangate@rediffmail.com
2
DR. M. R. VYAWAHARE
Head of Department, Department of civil Engineering, Dr, Rajendra Gode institute of Technology and Research
Amravati, India

ABSTRACT: The Black Cotton Soil (Expansive Soil) is a predominant type of soil in India. The swelling and shrinkage behavior
of BC soil makes it difficult and dangerous to have foundation material for any structure. The BC soil is generally weak and has
no enough stability in heavy loading and at the same time soil bears low strength i.e. CBR value. In this regards, it is necessary to
reinforce or stabilize the soil. The various stabilization methods (Lime, Cement, Flyash, Pozzolanic Materials) are available,
however the present work introduce the enhancing the bearing capacity of b.c. soil by using shredded rubber tyre on OMC
(Optimum Water Content), MDD (Maximum Dry Density), Consistency limits (Liquid, Plastic & Shrinkage Limits) & CBR
(California Bearing Ratio) of BC soil, by using maximum CBR value design the thickness of flexible pavement. The various
laboratory tests were performed on the oven dry soil to determine the basic properties of soil. The rubber tyre shred is added in
the soil with percentage (2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, and 10%) of weight of soil. It was observed that the MDD increases up to 6% and then
decreases considerably. The OMC decreases upto 6% and then increases considerably. The CBR values were found to be
increased with increase in the 8% of rubber tyre shred. The effect on consistency limits was also check for different percentages of
rubber tyreshred. The total pavement thickness is 630 mm at maximum CBR value of 7% at 8% rubber tyre shred.

Keywords: Expansive Soil, Rubber TyreShread, consistency limit, OMC and MDD, Shear Strength, California Bearing Ratio
(CBR) , flexible pavement thickness.

1. INTRODUCTION

The concept of expansive soil can be utilized for
describing soils which include a significant amount of
variation in volume because of exchanging the amount of
the soil water content. Expansive soils are mainly observed
in the arid and semi-arid zones of the earth planet where, the
rate of evaporation is more than the rate of precipitation
annually. Furthermore, these types of soils cause problems
to buildings and other engineering constructions especially
lightweight structures because of their ability to uplifting the
structures during wet season and shrink during summer
season. The arid zones are more subjected to expansive soil
because of their conditions is appropriate for the
materialization of clayey minerals of the smectite group like
montmorillonite or other sorts of illites. These clays were
known with their specific properties such as a very small
particle size, a great specific surface area and a high level of
cation exchange capacity.
One of the difficulties which civil engineers face is
constructing of light structures on expansive soils. Therefore
they are obliged to think about the most suitable foundation
type for buildings and other structures. Another alternative
for mitigating this problem is stabilizing soil by using most
economical and effective ways by adding some none swell
materials admixtures that modify volume change and other
soil characteristics.
Black Soils - In India deposition of Black cotton soil is very
good and prosperous for farmers. All the basic amenities of
life i.e. food, clothes and house have been fulfilled by the
soil, without soil It is just next to impossible to think about
life on the earth. But on the other side in Civil Engineering
aspects Black cotton soil is very troublesome and
problematic and hazardous due to its characteristics.
Because of its high swelling and shrinkage characteristics,
the black cotton soil has been a challenge to the Engineers .
The black cotton soil is very hard when dry but loses its
strength completely when in wet condition. Soil depostis in
nature exist in a extremely erratic manner producing there
by a infinite variety of possible combination which will
affect the strength of the soil and the procedure to make it
purposeful. So in the particular case of Black cotton soil
with wide range of challenges associated with the
construction.
All the Black cotton soils are not expansive soils
and all the expansive soil are not Black in colour. These
soils possessed high strength in summer and decreased
rapidly in winter. Swelling and shrinkage of expansive soil
cause deferential settlement resulting in severe damage to
the foundation, buildings, roads, retaining structures and
canal linings.
The various index tests were performed on the oven
dry soil to determine the index properties of soil. To study
the effect of rubber tyre the rubber tyre shreds were added in
the soil with varying percentages (2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, and
10%) by weight of soil. The effect was checked after
performing compaction test (Standard Proctor Test), CBR
(California Bearing Ratio) test, Consistency tests and Shear
tests (Direct Shear, Triaxial Shear) on given soil.

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International Journal of Advanced Innovative Technology
in Engineering (IJAITE), Vol. 3, Issue 5, Sept-2018
2. ITERATURE REVIEW
S. Karthik[1] studied that the soil is a peculiar material.
Some waste materials such fly ash, rice husk ash, pond ash
may use to make the soil to be stable, addition of such
materials will increase the physical as well as chemical
properties of the soil. Some expecting properties to be
improved are CBR value, shear strength, liquidity index,
plasticity index, unconfined compressive strength and
bearing capacity etc. California bearing ratio (CBR) and
unconfined compressive strength (UCS) other strength
property tests was conducted on soil.
S. H. Ghatgeet al. [2] had done the stabilization of black
cotton and shedi soil using waste shredded rubber tyre chips.
The unconfined compression (UCS) and CBR tests were
performed with varying percentages of rubber tyre from 5 –
15% with curing period of 4, 7 and 14 days. The unconfined
strength and CBR values found to be increase with increase
in the percentages of cement and rubber tyre shreds upto 4%
of cement.
M. Neerajaet al [3] studied experimentally stabilization of
black cotton soil and shredded tyres mixed with different
percentages (5 and 25%) and sizes (15 and30mm) to
investigate the relative strength gain. Permeability of the
mixture increased, bearing ratio was maximum when 5% of
15mm shredded tyres are added to the soil. The Objective of
the study examines the suitability of shredded tyres for
stabilizing the soil in this study, the changes in the
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ISSN: 2455-6491
engineering properties of the soil with the addition of
shredded tyres. Black cotton (BC) soils are highly clayey
soils, grayish to blackish in colour found in several states of
India
For the study, the soil was brought from jaganathpuram,
a place near chodavaraminVisakhapatnam district. The
liquid limit and plasticity index values ranges from 40 to
100% and 20 to 60%respectively. Black cotton soils have
low shrinkage limits 10 to15% and high optimum moisture
content 25to 30%. The black cotton soils are found to
contain montimorillonite clay. The shredded tyre used in
this study was obtained commercially in two size groups of
1.5 and 3.0cm size square pieces free of scrap metal. These
shredded tyres are mixed with the black cotton in
percentages of 5 and 25 by weight.
Figure 1: .Compaction Behavior of Black Cotton and Black
Cotton Shredded Tyre Mixture of Size 1.5 cm.
Figure 2: Penetration Load Curves with Respect to
Percentage of Shredded Tyres for 3.0 cm Size
3. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
MATERIALS
Black Cotton Soil: The soil used in this study is a Black
Cotton Soil (blackish brown in colour) collected from site
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International Journal of Advanced Innovative Technology
in Engineering (IJAITE), Vol. 3, Issue 5, Sept-2018 ISSN: 2455-6491
under construction Amravati, Maharashtra. The black cotton Method of Testing Program
soil was collected by method of disturbed sampling after The following tests were carried out on the natural and
removing the top soil at 500 mm depth and transported in stabilized soil.
sacks to the laboratory. Little amount of the sample was
sealed in polythene bag for determining its natural moisture Sr.
content. The soil was air dried, pulverized and sieved with Name of Test Equipment
no
Indian Standard Sieve No. 4 (4.75 mm aperture) as required
for laboratory test 01 Moisture Content Oven Drying Method
02 Specific Gravity Pycnometer Method
03 Particle Size Distribution Sieve Analysis
Atterberg Limit (Liquid Casagrandes
04 limit, Plastic limit, Apparatus
Shrinkage limit)
05 Compaction Test Standard Proctor Test
CBR (California Bearing
06 CBR Test
Ratio)
07 Shear Strength Parameters Direct Shear Test

4. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Figure 3: Black cotton Soil Sieve Analysis

Shredded Tyre Rubber

Shredded tyre material was obtained from the
waste generated from tyre rethreading industries at MIDC
Amravati, Maharashtra.

Preparation of Rubber Shreds From Scrap Tyre

Figure 5: Sieve Analysis

Specific Gravity
The average specific gravity for the given soil sample was
found to be 2.55.
Liquid Limit (WL)

Figure 4: Formation of Rubber Shreds from the Cutting

Machine

Sizes of Rubber Shreds

Processed tyre materials are often irregular in

shape. Most processed material, like shreds and chips, are
disc-shaped. The processed shredded rubber was may not be
of regular shape and size. The dimension of the rubber chips
were presented as nominal size in this study. Tyre chips
having size of 10 mm to 20 mm and 2 mm to 3 mm thick Figure 6: Liquid Limit
after removing steel belting are used extensively. The
shredded tyre material used which are free from steel wire The liquid limit for the given soil sample was found to be
or nylon fibers. 57.73% (corresponding to 25 No. of blows)

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International Journal of Advanced Innovative Technology
in Engineering (IJAITE), Vol. 3, Issue 5, Sept-2018
Plastic Limit (WP): Average plastic limit of black cotton
soil is 39.81%.
Plasticity Index (IP): The given Soil sample plasticity index
is 17.92 %
Shrinkage Limit (WS): The average shrinkage limit was
found to be 9.86 %.
Standard Proctor Compaction Test
Optimum Moisture Content (OMC)
The variation of the optimum moisture contents (OMC) with
rubber shred content is shown in Fig. The OMC at no rubber
shred is 24.90% and subsequent decrease in OMC reached a
value of 22.5% at 6% rubber shred content. Further addition
of rubber shred lead to an increment in the OMC to 22.9% at
10% rubber shred.
ISSN: 2455-6491
rubber shred, an increase in MDD was observed to a value
of 1.75 gm/cm3 at 6% rubber shred. Further increase in
rubber shred content led to decrease in MDD to a value of
1.60 gm/cm3 at 10% rubber tyre shred.
California Bearing Ratio (CBR) Test:
When CBR test is carried out without addition of
tyre content load versus penetration graph plotted below.
The unsoaked condition which is shown in Fig, for 0%
rubber shred content, CBR value for 2.5 mm penetration
was obtained as 2.63%. The peak CBR value obtained for
2.5 mm penetration was at 8% rubber shred content with a
CBR value of 7.00%. Further increase in rubber shred
percentage causes a reduction in the CBR value to 6.13%.

Figure 9: Variation of CBR Value for 2.5 mm Penetration

with Different % Rubber Tyre Shred

Direct Shear Test

Figure 7: Variation of OMC with Different Percentages of

Rubber Tyre Shred

Maximum Dry Density (MDD)

Figure 10: Variation of Cohesion for Different % of Rubber

Tyre Shred

Figure 8: Variation of MDD with Different Percentages of

Rubber Tyre Shred

From figure it is seen that for 0% rubber shred, the

maximum dry density was 1.66 gm/cm3 and on addition of

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International Journal of Advanced Innovative Technology
in Engineering (IJAITE), Vol. 3, Issue 5, Sept-2018 ISSN: 2455-6491
invaluable guidance in the hour of need, without which this
project would have never been completed.
I would like to thank Dr. P. B. Patil, Principal of my
institute for providing necessary facilities during the period
of my working on dissertation work My gratitude is
extended to my parents for their encouragement and support.

7. REFERENCES

[1] Ghatge Sandeep Hambirao., and Rakaraddi, P.G. (2014)

“Soil Stabilization Using Waste Shredded Rubber Tyre
Chips”. Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering
(JMCE), Vol. 11, pp. 20-27.
Figure 11: Variation of Angle of Friction (φ) for Different [2] Baleshwar Singh and Valliapan Vinot,” Influence of
% of Rubber Tyre Shred Waste Tire Chips on Strength Characteristics of Soils”,
Journal of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Sep. 2011,
Design Thickness of Flexible pavement by CBR Method Volume 5, No. 9 (Serial No. 46), pp. 819-827
( IRC 37-2001 )
[3] Meei-Hoan Ho and Chee-Ming Chan, “The Potential of
Using Rubber chips as a Soft Clay Stabilize Enhancing
Design CBR Thickness mm Total Agent”, Modern Applied Science, Vol. 4, No.10, 2010.
traffic Value Thickness
% BC DBM BASE SUB mm [4] Manoj, K.V., and Ramesh, H.N., (2012) “Strength and
30 msa BASE Performance of Black Cotton Soil Treated with Calcium
2.63 40 143.7 250 409.6 843.3 Chloride”. IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil
7.00 40 110 250 409.6 630 Engineering (IOSRJMCE) ISSN: 2278-1684 Volume 2, pp.
21-25.
Table 1: CBR value and Thickness of Pavement
[5] Khanna S.K., Justo C.E.G. “Highway Engineering”,
5. CONCLUSION published by Nem Chand & Bros, Civil Lines, Roorkee
1. As the percentage of shredded tyre increases, MDD 247667, India. Ninth Edition (2011):
increases upto 17.5 KN/ at 6 % rubber shred [6] Equation (i) From IRC 37-2001 THE INDIAN ROADS
add and then decreases considerably. CONGRESS (2001):“Guidelines for the Design of Flexible
2. As the percentage of shredded tyre increases, OMC Pavements (second Revision)
decreases upto 22.5% at 6 % rubber shred add and
then increases considerably.
3. As the percentage of shredded tyre increases, CBR
increases upto 7 % at 8% rubber tyre shred and
then decreases considerably.
4. As the percentage of shredded tyre increases from 0
% to 10%, Cohesion of black cotton soil
continuously decreases from 44 kN/m2 to 5 kN/m2
and angle of internal friction increases from 15.64
to 23.55 .
5. The maximum CBR value is 7% at 8% of shredded
tyre.
6. For the traffic volume study the design traffic is 30
msa.
7. The design traffic and higher CBR value the total
thickness of Flexible pavement is 630 mm.
8. If the CBR value of soil increases then decreases
the thickness of pavement.

6. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I offer my gratitude and it is my privilege to

acknowledge indebtedness to my guide Dr. M. R.
Vyawahare, for his constant encouragement, nobal and

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