An Introduction to Rubber Concrete

There are about 40 research papers available in the literature on this subject worldwide, most of which involve mainly analytical and laboratory work. 

Xiao [11] characterised the role of crumb rubber as a distribution of mini-control/expansion joints within concrete. Recently, Zhu [12] did an extensive analysis of the air content increase due to the presence of crumb rubber in concrete and developed a method to mitigate such an increase for the purpose of bringing back the loss in compressive strength for rubber concrete. 

Since 1999, a wave of pioneering effort to build rubber concrete test sites has been made in the state of Arizona by a coalition of Arizona State University (ASU), Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), Arizona Department of Environmental Quality 

In June 2003, a section of rubber concrete (29.5 kg per cubic metre) roadway at a major intersection in the city of Cottonwood, Arizona (cold climate), was constructed by ADOT. The thickness for controlled concrete design was 23 cm. But for the purpose of testing the performance of rubber concrete, the thickness was reduced to 13 cm. In December 2003, ADOT built a second major road (29.5 kg per cubic metre and a small volume of fibres) in Sunland Gin near Tucson, Arizona (warm climate). There are about one dozen rubber concrete structures that have been built here and there in Arizona, and they so far are performing well. 

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