Investigation of the thermal response of a tire shred-soil embankment

The objective of this research is to evaluate methods to prevent exothermic reactions in embankments utilizing tire shreds and to contribute to the development of design guidelines for future tire shred applications. This research involves monitoring a full-scale embankment divided into three sections (tire shreds mixed with soil, tire shreds layered with soil and a soil-only section), and within a large tire shred-only stockpile. The internal temperature, soil moisture, and relative humidity were monitored to determine the influence of moisture and precipitation, on the thermal response of the tire shred-soil embankment and of the large tire shred-only stockpile. The analysis conducted on the collected data shows that mixing or layering tire shreds with soil minimizes the potential for exothermic reactions from occurring within an embankment reinforced with tire shreds. It is also shown from this analysis that precipitation does increase exothermic reactions within the tire shred-only stockpile, but does not necessarily affect the heat generation within the tire shred-soil embankment or the internal temperatureCivil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin