Stabilization of backfill using TDA material under a footing close to retaining wall

Abstract

Reutilization of solid waste such as Tire Derived Aggregate (TDA) and mixing it with soft soil for backfill material not only reduces the required volume of backfill soil (i.e., sand-mining procedures; reinforcement), but also preserves the environment from pollution by recycling. TDA is a widely-used material that has a good track record for improving sustainable construction. This paper attempted to investigate the performance of Kaolin-TDA mixtures as a backfill material underneath a strip footing and close to a retaining wall. For this purpose, different types of TDA i.e., powdery, shredded, small-size granular (1-4 mm) and large-size granular (5-8 mm), were mixed with Kaolin at 0, 20, 40, and 60% by weight. Static surcharge load with the rate of 10 kPa per min was applied on the strip footing until the failure of footing happened. The behaviour of samples K80-G (1-4 mm) 20 and K80-G (5-8 mm) 20 were identical to that of pure Kaolin, except that the maximum footing stress had grown by roughly three times (300-310 kPa). Therefore, it can be concluded that the total flexibility of the backfill and shear strength of the strip footing have been increased by adding the TDA. The results indicate that, a significant increase in the failure vertical stress of the footing is observed at the optimum mixture content. In addition, the TDA increases the elasticity behaviour of the backfill.