New Tech Improves Sustainable Concrete With Recycled Tire Rubber

Researchers from Australia’s RMIT (formerly Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) have developed a new method for casting prefabricated concrete products made with rubber tires and construction and demolition waste that are up to 35 percent stronger than traditional concrete.

School of Engineering Professor Yufei Wu who led the development of the Rubberized Concrete Processing Technology (RCP-Tech) said the method involves combining a mix of course and fine aggregates with rubber tire waste, cement and water and compressing the mix to its minimum volume using pressure in a customized mold.

The technology can be used to significantly improve the strength, hardness and durability of any type of concrete material, such as rubber concrete, recycled aggregate concrete, and even ordinary concrete, he said.

“By enhancing the properties of the recycled waste without the use of any additional materials, we have developed a feasible and practical solution that addresses the performance issues affiliated with waste recycling in concrete,” Wu said.

Ph.D. researcher and RCP-Tech co-creator, Syed Kazmi, said the team was now looking to partner with the precast concrete industry to manufacture and test prototypes of products like blocks and roadside barriers, wall panels, beams and slabs.

“The technology can be easily applied in the precast concrete industry and requires very little change to existing manufacturing processes with the addition of just one extra step in the final stage of production,” he said.

© Scrap Tire News, February 2021