Enhancement of the Shear-flexural Strength of the Rubberized Concrete Prism Beam by External Reinforcement

It has become necessary to use damaged tires from various vehicles to produce rubberized concrete structures as a good solution to treat environmental pollution and reduce the total cost of construction. In general, concrete structures, for many reasons, may need to be strengthened. Recently, fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) sheets have been used to reinforce existing concrete structural elements that were deficient. FRP is an effective solution and is moderately common for strengthening and improving the properties of the structural element. Firstly, concrete mixes were poured with replaced sand, with the percentages varying from 0, 10, 20, and 30%. Thus, some mechanical properties in terms of the workability of concrete, compressive strength, tensile strength, and density of recycled concrete were studied using rubber from tires as an alternative to fine aggregate. Secondly, concrete prisms were poured with different proportions of rubber instead of sand. Twelve rubberized concrete prisms measure 100 mm x 100 mm x 600 mm. Then, the effect of fiber reinforced polymer with different forms on concrete prisms was investigated. The results revealed a decrease in the workability, density, and compressive strength of the rubber concrete samples with an increase in the proportions of replaced sand with rubber content. It is also observed that FRP improves the strength, stiffness, and ductility of all concrete prism beams with a different ratio of recycled rubber. In addition, the test results clearly show that the strengthening by width sheets of FPR behaved more favorably than the thin sheets having the same cross-section.