DEVELOPMENT OF SUSTAINABLE BUILDING BLOCKS WITH TYRE WASTE, FLYASH AND LIME

Land-filling waste tyres and fly ash is undesirable due to reduction in available sites to dispose the huge quantities of these wastes. Utilization of fly ash as a byproduct in the construction industry reduces technical and environmental problems. The present study aims at the utilization of crumbed rubber waste and fly ash as partial replacements for aggregates. An attempt is made to manufacture concrete blocks with crumbed rubber, cement, fly ash and lime as ingredients. The engineering properties such as water absorption, flexural strength, dimensionality test, block density and compressive strength of the concrete blocks were determined and compared with the codal provisions. The weight of rubcrete blocks were found to be about 25% less when compared with the ordinary blocks. The block density of rubcrete blocks was found to be around 1723kg/m³ which is slightly lower than the prescribed limits. The flexural strength of block was found to be three times higher than the normal limits. The compressive strength of the blocks was slightly lower than the minimum prescribed in the Indian Standards. The water absorption of rubcrete blocks was found to be 6.36%. The design approach developed to manufacture blocks using rubber powder and fly ash is useful to produce a sustainable construction material.