Review Investigation on the properties of concrete tactile paving blocks made with recycled tire rubber Fabiana Maria da Silva a,⇑ , Luisa Andréia Gachet Barbosa a , Rosa Cristina Cecche Lintz a , Ana Elisabete P.G.A. Jacintho b a Faculty of Technology, State University of Campinas, Rua: Paschoal Marmo, 1888 – CEP: 13484-332 Jardim Nova Itália, Limeira, São Paulo, Brazil b Center of Exact Sciences, Environmental Sciences and Technologies, CEATEC, Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas – PUC-Campinas, Rodovia D. Pedro I, km 136, Parque das Universidades, CEP: 13086-900 Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil highlights  Concrete with replacement of 10–50% of natural sand for tire rubber.  Excellent compressive strength and flexural strength results.  With the addition of rubber there was an improvement in abrasion resistance.  The tire rubber has high performance to use as concrete’s aggregate. article info Article history: Received 17 August 2014 Received in revised form 19 March 2015 Keywords: Accessibility Crumb rubber Concrete Tactile paving blocks Alternative materials Materials and construction components abstract Due to the increasing demand for buildings that meet accessibility standards and give access to all users, without restriction to people with a disability or reduced mobility, it arises the search for efficient and quality products. Aiming to develop a concrete paving block that contributes to sustainability in building and to accessibility in the built environment, in this paper recycled tire rubber (crumb rubber) was used as aggregate in concrete to produce tactile paving block. The replacement was made in relation of the mass of sand at the level of 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%. The concrete characterization was performed by testing the consistency, compressive strength, flexural strength, water absorption, porosity, density, abrasion resistance, impact resistance and microstructure analysis. Although the major limitation of using crumb rubber as aggregate in the concrete is to reduce the compressive strength, the results reached were higher than 40 MPa for the paving blocks with the inclusion of 50% of crumb rubber. The results of flexural strength obtained to all concrete mixes studied were higher than 6.5 MPa. It was found that concrete containing rubber showed a better abrasion resistance. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 72 2. Experimental materials and methods ...................................................................................... 72 2.1. Materials ....................................................................................................... 72 2.1.1. Cement ................................................................................................. 72 2.1.2. Aggregate ............................................................................................... 72 2.1.3. Superplasticizer .......................................................................................... 72 2.2. Concrete mixing ................................................................................................. 72 2.3. Test method ..................................................................................................... 73 2.3.1. Consistency of fresh concrete ............................................................................... 73 2.3.2. Compressive strength ...................................................................................... 73 2.3.3. Flexural strength.......................................................................................... 73 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2015.05.027 0950-0618/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author at: Rua Augusto Merichi, 156. Jardim Santa Amália, Limeira, São Paulo CEP: 13484-813, Brazil. Tel.: +55 19 3445 3519/9198 3536. E-mail addresses: faby_febs@yahoo.com.br, fabiana.silva@pos.ft.unicamp.br (F.M. da Silva). Construction and Building Materials 91 (2015) 71–79 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Construction and Building Materials journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat