Pressure settlement behavior of tire chips reinforced sand under eccentric inclined loading

Abstract

The waste management of large quantities of waste tires has become a major environmental concern over the years. To provide a viable and sustainable substitute to the current waste tire disposal techniques, attempts have been made for their possible utilization in geoengineering. The current study proposes a novel technique for the application of tire chips-reinforced sand as fill below foundations subjected to eccentric inclined loads. Model footings tests were performed on a strip footing subjected to eccentric inclined loading conditions by varying reinforcement quantity reinforcement depth, eccentricity, and inclination. It was observed that the inclusion of waste tire chips substantially enhances the bearing capacity of sand with observed improvements more than 20 times that of unreinforced sand. The observed performance under eccentric inclined was better than central vertical loading conditions indicating that it is more beneficial under eccentric inclined loading conditions. Furthermore, the tilt and horizontal displacements of the footing resting on reinforced sand reduced considerably compared to the unreinforced case. At last, a statistical model based on the test results was developed for quick estimation of the bearing capacity of tire chips-reinforced sand.