ENGINEERING PROPERTIES OF CONCRETE WITH SAND PARTIALLY SUBSTITUTED WITH CRUMB RUBBER

The study was carried out to evaluate the influence of substituting sand content in concrete mixes with small proportions of crumb rubber on the mechanical and microstructural properties of concrete. The influence of crumb rubber on the mechanical properties of the concrete mixes was evaluated at early and prolonged ages, in addition to the conventional standard age. The microstructural property of the crumb rubber modified concrete samples was evaluated by testing and characterizing concrete samples obtained from the central part of the concrete cubes which were cured for 28 days. The properties of concrete samples were obtained from slump, bulk density, compressive strength, split tensile strength, scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy tests. The results showed improvement in the mechanical properties of the concrete samples with increase in the age of curing in water. It further revealed that substitution of certain proportion of sand with crumb rubber could result in concrete with slightly improved mechanical properties of the crumb rubber modified concrete whereas substitution of greater quantities of sand with crumb rubber can lead to reduction in the strength parameters of the concrete samples. The microstructural characteristics of the concrete specimens substantiated the trend in the mechanical properties of the concrete samples.