Toughness performance of rubcrete seawalls

Abstract

Seawalls are structures built parallel to the shoreline as a reinforcement of a part of the coastal profile. Seawalls are generally subjected to impact loads due to wave impact. In order to withstand the impact loads, the concrete seawalls should possess sufficient impact resistance. The use of crumb rubber particles as a replacement of aggregates improves the energy absorption capacity of the concrete structure. The use of rubcrete in concrete seawalls has not been tried in the past. So, this paper presents the feasibility study of using rubcrete in the concrete seawall by assessing the toughness of rubcrete seawalls. The impact strength of seawall was assessed for rubcrete seawalls by replacing 5%, 10%, and 15% of fine aggregate by crumb rubber. Numerical wave simulation was carried out in ANSYS Fluent, and the wave was coupled to the structure by one-way fluid–structure interaction. The results presented in the paper indicate that the addition of crumb rubber up to 15% shows enhanced toughness performance.