Old tyres can reduce fire damage, study shows

A NEW way of protecting concrete from fire damage using materials recycled from old tyres has been successfully tested by researchers at the University of Sheffield.

The team used fibres extracted from textile reinforcement which are commonly embedded into tyres, and added them into concrete.

Man-made fibres are used in many modern structures, including large scale engineering projects, like Crossrail.

But the Sheffield study is the first to show that the fibres do not have to be made from raw materials, but can be reclaimed from used tyres.

“We’ve shown that these recycled fibres do an equivalent job to ‘virgin’ polypropylene fibres which require lots of energy and resources to produce,” said lead author Dr Shan-Shan Huang, in the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering at the University of Sheffield.

“Using waste materials in this way is less expensive, and better for the planet.”

Collaborating with Twincon, a Sheffield-based company that develops innovative solutions for the construction industry, the researchers have also developed technologies for reclaiming the fibres from the used tyres. This involved separating the fibres from the tyre rubber, untangling the fibres into strands, and then distributing them evenly into the concrete mixture.