Behavior of Steel Furnace Slag, Coal Wash, and Rubber Crumb Mixtures with Special Relevance to Stress–Dilatancy Relation

Abstract

The influence of rubber crumbs on the dilatancy behavior and critical state of steel furnace slag (SFS), coal wash (CW), and rubber crumbs (RC) mixtures was investigated via a series of monotonic drained triaxial tests. These tests revealed that RC contents (Rb, %) have a significant influence on the dilatancy behavior and critical state of the aforementioned waste mixtures; in fact, as more Rb is added, dilatancy and the slope of the critical state line in e−lnp′ space decreases. Within the framework of critical state soil mechanics, a dilatancy model for SFS+CW+RC mixtures was proposed and validated using experimental data. This model also captured the energy-absorbing property of RC using an empirical relationship between the total work input Wtotal and the critical stress ratio Mcs.