Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, 2021, 9, 245-256 https://www.scirp.org/journal/jmmce ISSN Online: 2327-4085 ISSN Print: 2327-4077 DOI: 10.4236/jmmce.2021.93017 May 12, 2021 245 J. Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering Effect of the Substitution of Sand by Rubber of Waste Tires on the Mechanical Properties of Hydraulic Concrete and Exposure to Gamma Radiation Jesús M. Colín de la Cruz 1* , Carmen Gabriela Guzmán 1 , Fermín Castillo Mejía 2 , Benjamin Leal Acevedo 3 , Osvaldo Flores Cedillo 2 , Isabel Gamboa de Buen 3 , Arturo Molina Ocampo 4 , Horacio Martínez Valencia 2 1 Facultad de Ciencias Químicas e Ingeniería, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, México 2 Laboratorio de Espectroscopia, Instituto de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca, México 3 Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México City, México 4 Centro de Investigación en Ingeniería y Ciencias Aplicadas, UAEM, Cuernavaca, México Abstract For a long time and until now, rubber is the most used material for the man- ufacture of tires for motor vehicles. Unfortunately, once the tire meets its life cycle, the remaining rubber cannot be recycled, so the tires are discarded in collection centers and often in clandestine dumps. This represents a serious environmental problem because, in one case, these waste tires become breed- ing grounds for insects and wildlife that is harmful to humans. In the second case, the tires are burned, releasing highly damaging gases into the atmos- phere. On the other hand, concrete is worldwide the construction material par excellence. It is basically composed of cement, gravel and sand. Mixing these three components in different proportions, their mechanical strength in compression can be increased. However, due to its fragile nature, concrete, once a crack is formed, it rapidly advances by fragmenting the material and producing its rapid collapse. In the present work, in order contribute to the care of the environment as well as to modify the fracture mode of the con- crete, rubber particles obtained from waste tires were used as sand substitute in hydraulic concrete. In addition, rubber modified samples concrete were lately exposed to 70 kGy of gamma radiation in order to study the effects of this radiation on the mechanical deformation of concrete. The results showed a decrease in the mechanical properties of the concrete with rubber particles with respect to the traditional concrete itself. However, such decreases were How to cite this paper: de la Cruz, J.M.C., Guzmán, C.G., Mejía, F.C., Acevedo, B.L., Cedillo, O.F., de Buen, I.G., Ocampo, A.M. and Valencia, H.M. (2021) Effect of the Substitution of Sand by Rubber of Waste Tires on the Mechanical Properties of Hy- draulic Concrete and Exposure to Gamma Radiation. Journal of Minerals and Mate- rials Characterization and Engineering, 9, 245-256. https://doi.org/10.4236/jmmce.2021.93017 Received: April 12, 2021 Accepted: May 9, 2021 Published: May 12, 2021 Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access