ABSTRACT
Modernization and advancement in the technology enhances not only the human
luxuries and comfort but also damages the environment. The use of vehicles in
Pakistan is increasing day-by-day because of which disposal of solid waste to the
landfills of used tyres is a serious issue to be solved for Pakistan Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). Still this industry faces enormous challenging conditions
because of no any support from the government or any government agency for the
recycling and reuse of waste tyre by products. Manually a large quantity of high
strength steel fibers are being extracted from waste tyres, the main usage of this steel
derived fibers from the tyres is the manufacturing new steel or iron alloys.
This research study is focusing on the use of steel fibers extracted from waste tyres
in concrete with different proportions to produce a concrete stronger than ordinary
concrete, and cost effective. Various fiber reinforced concrete specimens were
prepared and presented for testing the compressive and split tensile strength in the
universal load testing machine. The addition of steel fibers was made to the concrete
mix by dry weight of mix with 0% (conventional), 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2% and 2.5%.
Result shows that the compressive strength of concrete with 2.5% fibers improved
up to 74%, whereas the tensile strength with 2% fibers improved up to 60%.
However, keeping in view the workability of mix, the optimum proportion of waste
tyres steel fibers is 1.5%. At the addition of 1.5% fibers improves compressive
strength up to 60%, while indirect tensile strength improves to 32% as compared to
the conventional concrete.