Mitigating Zinc Leachate from End-of-Life Tire Rubber in Stabilized Clayey Soils
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 150, Issue 11
Abstract
End-of-life tire (ELT) rubber has been widely researched to replace aggregates in construction materials such as asphalt concrete and cementitious composites. Although most studies paid attention to its effect on engineering properties and the durability of the materials, very few considered chemical reactions with pore solution and the potential for environmental leachate, especially rubberized stabilized soil, which was proposed recently to increase the use of ELT rubber in civil engineering. This study proposes the use of rubberized stabilized soil (RSS) in which clayey soils (e.g., kaolin and bentonite) were stabilized by portland cement (PC) and end-of-life tire (ELT) rubber particles. The authors previously developed a methodology to extract zinc from the ELT rubber; therefore, this study explores the potential for RSS to immobilize the leachate from the ELT rubber before and after this treatment. Three main topics are addressed in this study: (1) the capability of clay to capture leached zinc under ambient and alkaline aqueous conditions; (2) engineering properties of RSS [i.e., unconfined compressive (UCS), flow] with 0%, 10%, 30%, and 50% ELT rubber added by clay volume; and (3) pore solution and leachability tests of RSS. A leaching experiment was employed for Topic 1, UCS and flow tests were conducted for Topic 2, and pore solution extraction and leaching tests were performed for Topic 3. The results showed that the clayey soils and ELT rubber are synergistic in terms of engineering properties and the capturability of zinc and total organic carbon (TOC). Although the ELT rubber and PC strengthen the clay structure, the clay absorbs leached zinc and TOC from the ELT rubber particles. Adding untreated ELT rubber into PC-stabilized clays significantly increased the RSS strength; however, this improvement was less significant for the treated ELT rubber. Ultimately, the results proved that the environmental and mechanical performance of RSS makes it a viable construction material.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the Center for Tire Research (CenTiRe), Project SUST-2021-D14-4. The authors acknowledge Lehigh Technologies for providing the ELT rubber and Short Mountain Silica company for providing the kaolin and bentonite for this work. The authors thank Jeffrey Parks, Jody Smiley, Madeline E. Schreiber, and Aaron J. Prussin II for their assistance with ICP-MS and TOC analyses. This work used shared facilities at the Nanoscale Characterization and Fabrication Laboratory, which is funded and managed by Virginia Tech’s Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science. Additional support is provided by the Virginia Tech National Center for Earth and Environmental Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NanoEarth), a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), supported by NSF (ECCS 1542100 and ECCS 2025151).
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Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 150 • Issue 11 • November 2024
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© 2024 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Sep 15, 2023
Accepted: Jun 11, 2024
Published online: Aug 27, 2024
Published in print: Nov 1, 2024
Discussion open until: Jan 27, 2025
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