Determinación de propiedades de baldosas de grano lavado, usando una mezcla de cemento, granito y caucho triturado en la capa de desgaste.

Used tires constitute an environmental problem, since they are visually contaminating, they attempt against public health and can be fire generators. The purpose of this work is to evaluate the technical feasibility of incorporating rubber from used tires as a raw material in the elaboration of the wear layer of washed grain two-layer tiles. For the wear layer composed of gray cement and aggregate (granite and crushed rubber), three mixtures were designed with granite substitution by crushed rubber in percentages of 0%, 30%, and 50%. Physical and mechanical properties were evaluated, using as reference document the standard NTC 2849: Tiles with grain surface (terrazzo). The results show that wear resistance is not affected or favored by the addition of rubber and that impact resistance improves with the increase in the percentage of granite replaced by rubber. Also, it was found that density decreases and water absorption increases with the addition of rubber. The present study indicates that the incorporation of crushed rubber into the wear layer of washed grain tiles is feasible and can help in reducing environmental contamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]