Estimation of Energy Absorption Capacity and Geotechnical Characterization of Silty-clay Soil Blended with Tire Fibres

This article presents the compaction, consolidation, unconfined and confined characteristics of tire-fibre blended silty-clay at different investigating parameters. The compaction tests were performed to evaluate the Maximum Dry Density (MDD) and Optimum Moisture Content (OMC) of soil-tire fibre mixture at different percentage of tire fibre (0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% by weight). It was found that with increasing the amount of tire-fibre MDD of mixture decreased significantly whereas, OMC increases marginally. Both, unconfined compression strength (UCS) and confined triaxial tests were performed on the soil-tire mixes specimen prepared at MDD and OMC. The result shows that with increasing percentage of tire fibre to the silty-clay soil, the ductility of the soil-tire mixture increases whereas; the maximum shear stress at the failure is reduced. Based on UCS tests, the Energy Absorption Capacity (EAC) of soil-tire mixture is increased increased by 55% at 10% of tire fibre, for strain rate of 1.25mm/min, whereas; on further increase in TF from 10% to 30%, EAC decreased by 44%, 32%, 52% at the shearing rate of 0.62mm/min, 1.25mm/min and 2.5mm/min, respectively. However, based on the confined triaxial test results, the angle of internal friction of soil-tire mixture decreases with increasing tire contents; whereas, cohesion decreased up to 10% of tire fibre and beyond that it increases. EAC was found to be increased up to 20% of the tire fibre and further addition shows reduction in energy absorption capacity.