Effect of polyvinyl alcohol on the mechanical and sound properties of recycled rubber mortar

Recycled rubber mortar is a novel green construction material which alleviates the environmental impact of waste rubber tires and greatly improves the sound insulation performance. Existing cement mortar with high rubber content exhibits poor mechanical properties, limiting its application in construction field. In this study, polyvinyl acetate (PVA) was introduced to modify recycled rubber mortar and the effect of PVA contents on its fluidity, flexural, compressive, impact strengths, and drying shrinkage was analyzed. To improve the analytical accuracy, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to select the optimal mix proportion. The results indicate that PVA has positive effects on the mechanical properties of recycled rubber mortar. Further, comparing the trend of the normalized impact sound pressure level with an increase in frequency and the weighted normalized impact sound pressure level revealed that mixing 50 % recycled rubber particles and 8 % polyvinyl acetate effectively improved the sound insulation performance of cement mortar. These findings can promote the application of recycled rubber mortar in housing construction projects and having environmental benefits.