Dynamic Behaviour of Granular Soil Materials Mixed with Granulated Rubber: Effect of Rubber Content and Granularity on the Small-Strain Shear Modulus and Damping Ratio

During the last 2 decades experimental and theoretical studies have striven to evaluate the use of granulated rubber as a construction material in civil engineering applications. Several geotechnical structures using soil/rubber mixtures or clean granulated rubber proved the efficiency of this solution. In the framework of site seismic response analysis and seismic design of structures, the soil material properties in the form of G/Go-γ-D/Do curves are one of the main constituents in numerical analysis methods. To this end, an experimental approach is presented on the dynamic properties of granular soils mixed with granulated rubber, in terms of small-strain shear modulus, Go, and damping ratio, Do. The Go and Do values are obtained by combination of resonant column and cyclic triaxial tests’ results, for wide rubber content in the mixtures. The significant influence of the mean grain size ratio of the mixed materials is considered and finally, analytical expressions appropriate for the engineering practice for Go and Do, are proposed. © 2017, Springer International Publishing AG.