Investigations on ground rubber tire powder incorporated textile reinforced concrete for flexural strengthening of RC beams

This research reports the feasibility of use of rubber tire waste as a component material in textile reinforced concrete. Study mainly focus on arriving at a strengthening system for RC beams using textile reinforced concrete. Basalt and alkali resistant glass textiles are used as reinforcement and ground rubber tire powder incorporated cementitious mortar is used as binder. Experimental investigations are carried out to arrive at the mechanical properties of different percentages of rubber tire powder in a cementitious mortar. Three types of mixes with different rubber contents ranging from 2.5% to 7.5% of partial replacement of cement are used in the concrete mix. Mechanical characterization studies are performed to determine the compressive strength and split tensile strength. The micro structural evaluation is carried by using scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM/EDAX) to correlate the micro structural behaviour with mechanical properties. Further, behaviour of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with ground rubber tire (GRT) powder incorporated textile reinforced concrete is studied in detail. The encouraging results obtained in present study will pave way for extending the application potential of ground rubber tire as an ingredient in textile reinforced concrete for many structural applications in an environmental friendly and cost-effective way.