Recycled Tire Chips Mixed with Sand as Lightweight Backfill Material in Retaining Wall Applications: An Experimental Investigation

Abstract

This paper presents studies on use of recycled tire shreds in sand–tire chips (STC) mixture for retaining wall applications. Small-scale physical model tests were performed on rigid retaining wall with different STC mixtures. Rigid retaining wall model of 600 mm height was constructed in a Perspex container. The wall was made with hollow rectangular steel sections. STC mixtures with different tire chips proportions, such as 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 % along with pure sand were considered as backfill materials. Static surcharge load, up to 10 kPa, was applied using concrete blocks. Model wall behaviour in terms of displacements and earth pressures has been discussed for sand alone (control case) and STC mixtures as backfill materials. The experimental results indicate that the horizontal displacements and lateral earth pressures are reduced to about 50–60 % of that of control case by using STC mixtures which functioned as light weight backfill materials.