UC San Diego

Tire derived aggregate (TDA) is a recycled geosynthetic material that is often used in civil engineering applications as a lightweight fill. While TDA is typically modelled as a compressible porous media similar to soil, there haven’t been detailed investigations on the deformation response of individual particles or particle-particle interaction. TDA particles are approximately flat sheets of shredded tire, but their characteristics can vary based on where the shred is obtained from (tread or side-wall) and the direction of particle-particle loading. This study presents results from experiments focused on the deformation response of individual TDA particles under quasi-static and sustained normal stresses. This study is a first step toward defining contact relationships for discrete element modeling of TDA fills.