Filling Mechanical Concrete® Tire-Derived-Cylinders
Mechanical Concrete® is the first, confined-aggregate, cellular concrete made by confining stone aggregates within a Mechanical Cement® thin-walled, tire-derived-cylinder. It is a dry concrete, made and placed on-site in one operation. It requires no curing and is instantly ready to support loads. Mechanical Concrete® is effective, economical and GREEN.
Effective
The Mechanical Cement® cylinder (TDC) provides direct lateral support to the aggregate materials. This physical support eliminates the lateral failure mode in Mechanical Concrete® aggregate bases.
Rugged
Mechanical Concrete® is a “rugged” material. ‘Ruggedness’ now has a precise engineering definition. Ruggedness means the product, Mechanical Concrete®, has 1. engineering material ‘toughness’, which is defined as ‘the ability to absorb large amounts of energy’, and 2. a high design factor. Since ‘toughness’ is based on both strength and ductility it is a useful component in specifically defining ‘ruggedness’.
Design Factor
The average Mechanical Concrete® cell made from a 28” diameter x 8” wide tire-derived-cylinder, TDC, filled with AAHSTO #57 limestone. A vertical loading on the stone surface of 50,000 lbs (over 3 times the AASHTO Truck Axel Load of 16,000lbs) exerts a lateral pressure on the inner surface of the TDC of approximately 20 psi. Tires are generally designed for a maximum operating pressure of around 44 psi. Most purely tensile material applications use design factors in excess of 3.0. So its safe to assume that the tire tensile materials were originally designed with a factor of 3.0 or larger. This means that the design factor for the average TDC used in Mechanical Concrete® is in excess of two x 3.0.
Because most stone has a crushing strength well in excess of 5000psi a high degree of toughness and a high design factor exists in the two composite materials used in Mechanical Concrete® .
So Mechanical Concrete® made with a TDC as Mechanical Cement® plus limestone or a similar aggregate generally used in hydraulic concrete is a ‘rugged’ material based on this definition. Mechanical Concrete® has the ability to absorb large amounts of energy and it has an overall design factor well in excess of 3.0. Ruggedness is a general indicator of a long and useful construction life. It further assures that Mechanical Concrete® can endure and sustain construction process handling and loads and be effective for its intended use.
Economical
Tested, Demonstrated, Cost and Time Savings Applications
Mechanical Concrete® is a lab tested (West Virginia University Civil and Environmental Engineering Large Structures Lab) and field tested with full scale demonstration projects. It’s a fast, low cost alternative to compacted stone aggregates and regular concrete products and processes in foundations, walls, bridge abutments, and roadway and railroad bases. Also it’s an economical alternative for retaining wall structures, site stabilization, erosion control, roadway shoulder, slip and trench and pothole repair. Because of it’s high voids ratio , Mechanical Concrete® functions effectively in erosion control, drainage and storm water retention applications. It does this greener, faster and more economically than regular concrete or traditional compacted aggregates and soil stabilization methods.
Efficiency
In road way base and site stabilization applications Mechanical Concrete® saves money because it saves time, energy and rework and uses less aggregate. The product is instantly ready for use because the stone requires no compaction or curing. And because it is a “rugged” product it dramatically reduces maintenance and extends the life of the installation. . It costs a minimum 25% less than regular concrete or conventional soil stabilization processes. In retaining walls the savings is closer to 50%.
Mechanical Concrete® creates a fast, low cost, “concrete strength” roadbed anywhere.