Feasibility Study to Produce Sound Barrier Brick Using Crumb Rubber

The wastes from automobile tires are increasing day by day. Some of them are reused in
pavement material. Rubbers cannot be burned otherwise it will cause environmental
issues. The dumping areas are insufficient as the wastes are increasing, led to mosquito
breeding cases. In conjunction with that, a feasibility study was conducted to investigate
potential of using crumb rubber in sound barrier wall application.
The literature review has proved that rubberized-brick is not only has high porosity, it is
also act as a good sound insulator. The properties of rubber enhanced the noise reduction
as the noise is absorbed by the material. The combination of two sizes of crumb rubber
which are 3.35 mm and 0.60 mm managed to produce greatest slump compared to other
sizes. Fourthly percentage volumetric replacement of sand found to be optimum mixture.
Hence, by adopting 40 % replacement of sand with combination crumb rubber with 3.35
mm and 0.6 mm, it was revealed that the brick was not only lighter but also stronger;
5.36 MPa. A prototype barrier wall of Im width xlm length was build using crumb
rubber-added bricks. Similar, traffic noise level was generated, using a single source.
The noise reduction was recorded by determining the difference of noise level at front
and behind the wall and varied the location. It was proved that the noise reduction of the
new potential barrier wall is much better than the conventional barrier wall using normal
brick.
From the study, the redundant tires can be reused to a newly product-based which is
crumb rubber-added brick in sound barrier application. It is not only potential replace
the conventional barrier wall but also solved two environmental problems, redundant
waste tires and also traffic noise as well.