Plastic Shrinkage and Microstructural Analysis of Butyl Rubber in Light-Weight Concrete

Concrete, an important material in construction projects for developing the modern world. Many researchers are involved for finding alternative materials used in concrete to save natural resources. Medical waste is disposed to earth’s surface and it will available long time in the soil and leads to contamination. That medical wastes are generated in huge quantity every day, from that butyl rubber was collected. In this research, butyl rubber is used to replace the coarse aggregate in the manufacture of light-weight concrete. The butyl rubber was replaced partially as 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20%, respectively. The compressive strength results decrease in the replacement of butyl rubber increased. The optimum percentage replacement of butyl rubber is 10%. The formation of plastic shrinkage cracks are decreased when the percentage of butyl rubber was increased in the lightweight concrete. Compare to control concrete, butyl rubber concrete produce less plastic shrinkage cracks it shows the uses of butyl rubber reducing the formation of plastic shrinkage cracks. The microstructural analysis are Scanned Electron Microscopic image (SEM), X-ray Diffraction Image (XRD), and FTIR to find the surface structure of the concrete. In this research, the butyl rubber was utilized as a coarse aggregate in the light-weight concrete for reducing the exhaust of natural resources and solving environmental problems also.