Faculty of Civil Engineering

We are pleased to announce the signing of a contract for the OPUS 27 research project, funded by the National Science Center, entitled. “Geotechnical and environmental characteristics of unbound mixtures of recycled concrete aggregate and shredded car tires”. The project manager on behalf of the Silesian University of Technology is Dr. Magdalena Kowalska, Eng. from the Department of Geotechnics and Roads. The leader of the project is the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, and the other partner is the University of Warsaw.

The project leaders describe the planned research as follows: “Our task will be to determine the most important physical and mechanical properties of alternative aggregate mixtures made from recycled concrete rubble (RCA) and car tires (TDA) in such a way as to estimate the necessary parameters needed for its subsequent safe use in geotechnical structures. We will be looking for such RCA-TDA mixtures that will provide structures with stability and strength over a wide range of deformations, i.e. under not only static loads, but also dynamic and cyclic loads. For this reason, we will devote considerable attention to determining the most favorable shapes and sizes of RCA and TDA particles, their proportions and density. We will use the most advanced laboratory equipment, such as an electron microscope, cyclic triaxial compression apparatus, piezo elements, resonant column, cyclic simple shear apparatus, in order to get a thorough understanding of the interaction between particles, stress-strain relationships in the loaded material, and its ability to damp vibrations. It will be equally important to check whether the proposed mixtures will be safe for the environment once they are incorporated into the structure, so we will determine the pH, chemical composition, presence of organic matter, heavy metals, leachability of potentially hazardous components, among other things. We will compare the results with current guidelines. We will also build virtual models of typical geotechnical structures: foundation, road embankment and retaining wall, and check which mixtures give the best results."

The results of the research could open up new possibilities for the use of these difficult-to-manage waste materials. The project will last four years. Recruitment of two students to the team will begin soon - we encourage you to apply!