Bearing capacity of circular footings on multi-layered sand-waste tire shreds reinforced with geogrids

Abstract

The presence of waste tires poses an environmental challenge as they occupy a significant amount of land and are expensive to dispose in landfills. However, reusing waste tires can address this issue when waste tires are used in geotechnical applications. To determine the viability of this approach, laboratory-scale tests were conducted to investigate load-bearing capacity of circular footings on sand-tire shred (STS) mixtures with shredded waste tire contents of 5%–15% by weight and three different widths of shreds. The investigation focused on analyzing the thickness of layers composed of STS mixtures, the soil cap, and the impact of geogrids on bearing capacity. The results indicate that a specific mixture of sand and tire shreds provides the highest footing-bearing capacity. In addition, the optimal shred content and size were found to be 10% by weight and 2 cm × 10 cm, respectively. Furthermore, for a given tire shred width, a particular length provides the largest bearing capacity. The results agree well with that of previous research conducted by the first author and his colleagues in direct shear and California bearing ratio (CBR) tests. The primary finding of this research is that the use of two-layered STS mixtures reinforced by geogrids significantly enhances the bearing capacity.