Dr Eng. Magdalena Kowalska will lead the project on recycled materials

The researcher at the Silesian University of Technology, Dr Eng. Magdalena Kowalska will lead the OPUS 27 research project funded by the National Science Centre entitled "Geotechnical and environmental characteristics of unrelated mixtures of recycled concrete aggregate and shredded car tires".

On February 14, 2025, an agreement was signed for the implementation of this project, which will be led by Dr Eng. Magdalena Kowalska from the Department of Geotechnics and Roads at the Faculty of Civil Engineering. The leader of the project is the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, and the second partner is the University of Warsaw.

The results of the research may open up new possibilities of using waste materials difficult to manage, i.e. mixtures of recycled concrete aggregate and shredded car tires.

The project leaders describe the planned research in this way:

“Our task will be to determine the most important physical and mechanical properties of the mixtures of alternative aggregates from recycled concrete rubble (RCA) and automotive tires (RCA) in such a way as to estimate the necessary parameters for its subsequent safe use in geotechnical structures. We will be looking for RCA-TDA blends that will provide structures with stability and strength over a wide range of deformation, i.e. for not only static loads, but also dynamic and cyclic loads.”

The researchers intend to use the most advanced laboratory devices, such as electron microscope, cyclic triaxial compression apparatus, piezo elements, resonance column, cyclic straight shear apparatus, in order to thoroughly understand the interaction between particles, the relationship between stress and strain in the loaded material and its ability to suppress vibrations. It will be equally important to check whether the proposed mixtures will be environmentally safe.