Mechanical and durability performance evaluation of crumb rubber-modified epoxy polymer concrete overlays

Abstract

The epoxy-based polymer concrete has been widely used for concrete repairing and overlays due to good mechanical properties and durability. To reduce environmental landfill problems with the accumulation of tire rubbers, scrap tire rubbers were added to epoxy polymer concrete in this investigation. The crumb rubber (with mesh size #50, 0.279 mm) were introduced into epoxy concrete with two different contents of 5% and 10% based on the epoxy monomer weight. The mechanical properties including direct tensile strength, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and interface bond strength. Thermal- and moisture-related durability performance of rubberized epoxy concrete were measured and compared with the control samples. The compressive strength and splitting tensile strength were improved with the added 5% solid rubbers, and slightly reduced with 10% content. With a specially-designed testing method, the interface tensile bonding strength between the epoxy concrete overlay and concrete slab were measured as higher than 250 psi for both control and rubberized samples. The thermal conductivity of polymer concrete was reduced with the increase of rubber contents. In addition, very low water absorption rates (<0.5%) were measured with all types of epoxy concrete samples. The interface microstructure with SEM also indicated the good bonds between rubber particles and epoxy resins. The overall test results showed the enhanced performance of rubber-modified epoxy concrete which can facilitate the tire rubber recycling into epoxy polymer concrete for protecting the exist concrete pavement structures.