7th Kuwait Waste Management & Recycle 2015

1. Scrap Tires as Wave Barriers
in the Marine Environment-
Analysis of pros and cons
S. Neelamani
COASTAL MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
ENVIRONMENT & LIFE SCIENCES RESEARCH CENTRE
KUWAIT INSTITUTE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
KUWAIT
Email: nsubram@kisr.edu.kw
sneelamani@yahoo.com
Mobile: 99278411

2. Aim of this Presentation
♦ Whether Scrap tires can be used in Kuwaiti
marine waters as wave barriers/floating
breakwaters?

3. Reason for “YES”
♦ Million of scrap tire in the dumping yard in
Kuwait and is increasing every year
♦ Good quality stones are not available in
Kuwait
♦ Floating breakwaters are suitable for
Kuwaiti marine condition

4. Reason for “NO”
♦ Environmental effect due to possible
leaching
♦ Engineering failures reported from some
projects around the world (Ex: Osborne reef
in US using scrap tires)

5. News from MAIL ONLINE – 7th
June 2013
♦ World’s biggest tyre graveyard: Incredible images of Kuwaiti
landfill site that is home to SEVEN MILLION wheels and so huge
it can be seen from space
♦ Gigantic holes are dug out from the sandy earth and filled with
old tyres every year - there are now over 7 million
♦ The expanse of rubber is so vast that the sizeable fields are now
visible from space
♦ The European landfill directive means that this type of 'waste
disposal' would be illegal in the UK
♦ In Britain all car and truck tyres must be recovered, recycled or
reused.

6. General reuse of Scrap tire
around the world
♦ Tire-Derived Fuel (TDF)
♦ Civil engineering applications
♦ Ground rubber applications/rubberized asphalt

7. Normal constituents of tires
♦ Rubber 62%
♦ Carbon black 32%
♦ Zinc oxide 1.5%
♦ Sulphur 0.6%
♦ Additives 4.5%.

8. Favorable Wave Climate in Kuwait
and Arabian Gulf for Scrap tire
Wave Barriers
♦ Moderate wave climate for more than 85%
of the year
♦ Significant wave height of more than 3.0
occur very rarely
♦ Peak wave periods of more than 8.0 sec
occur very rarely
♦ Very ideal for Floating wave barriers

9. Typical Floating Breakwater
Sea Side-More waves
Harbour Side-
Less waves

10. Motivation
♦ With 1.6 million cars on the road, Kuwait
produces more than 1.0 million scrap
tires every year (Q8NRI.com, 10th
Oct.
2010)
♦ Beneficial reuse is a SOLUTION for
scrap tire waste management
♦ 1 million scrap tire is sufficient to build
floating barriers of about 500 to 700 m
long (Conventional barrier in 2 m water
depth costs about KD. 500,000/- to
700,000/-).

11. 1200 m
700 m

12. World’s biggest
Scrap tire Grave
yard is in Kuwait

13. Marina using Floating scrap tire barrier
(Example: Quro Island)
Approach trestle
Floating barrier using
scrap tires
Application I-
Breakwater for Marina

14. Application II- Protection of offshore crude oil loading terminals
from wave activity
Scrap tire wave barrier
Waves

15. Floating SCRAP TIRE breakwater for Erosion Protection
of Islands (Example: Qaro Island)
Application III-
Erosion protection
Scrap tire wave barrier

16. Application IV- To facilitate safe offshore Construction
activity by reducing the wave climate

17. Scrap tire as Reef

18. Typical Application-
Protection of a marine facility
from wave activity

19. Typical Application-
Small Harbor

20. Typical C/S view of an assembled
floating breakwater with scrap tires

21. Scrap tire assembly for
Floating breakwater

22. Justification of reusing scrap
tire in the marine area
♦ Scrap tires are available in plenty.
♦ Reusing is a solution for disposing
them
♦ Technically Suitable for Kuwait and
Gulf type marine Environment
♦ Cost effective compared to
conventional wave barriers

23. Justification of reusing scrap tire
in the marine area (Contd..)
♦ Easy for handling, towing,
installation and mobility
♦ Independency of sea bed soil
conditions
♦ Better water circulation to
prevent possible pollutions of
water at the lee side of the
breakwater

24. Justification (Contd…)
♦ Easy for reorientation and removal
♦ Articulating capability with tidal
variations unlike fixed breakwater.
♦ Easy fish migration between sea side and
lee side
♦ Since it is flexible, the mooring forces is
expected to be smaller compared to a
non-flexible wave barrier of similar
configuration

25. Demerits
♦ Not suitable for predominantly low
frequency wave climate
♦ Not suitable for high energy sea
state
♦ Careful and periodic maintenance is
required
♦ Careful assessment of
environmental impact is needed

26. Coastal Protection works in Qaro Island as on Today

27. Quro Island – Erosion scene as on today

28. Important literature on Engineering
applications of Scrap tires
♦ Kowalski (1974a and 1974b)
♦ Candle and Piper (1974)
♦ Shaw and Ross (1977)
♦ McGregor (1978)
♦ McGregor and Miller (1978)
♦ Hibarger et al. (1979)
♦ Harms (1979)
♦ Collins et al (1995)
♦ Gu (2005)
♦ Yu and Yu (2009)
♦ Neelamani et al. (2012).

29. Engineering Optimization
♦ It is necessary to optimize the scrap tire as a
floating wave barrier with MINIMUM No.
of scrap tire/m run but MAXIMUM wave
energy dissipation
♦ Needs thorough research

30. Typical plan view of a single layer scrap tire
wave barrier assembly
Variable

31. Typical plan view of a double layer scrap tire
wave barrier assembly

32. Wave Flume for the Experimental Investigation

33. Typical set-up for the measurements of
hydrodynamic parameters
(Variable)
(Variable)
d
Δ
(H and T, (Variable))

34. Field trial of the recommended scrap
tire configuration at Quro island
♦ To gain the experience of assembling scrap
tires as per the recommendation from the
lab study and to learn the installation
technique in the field.

35. Field trial of the recommended scrap
tire configuration at Quro island
(Contd..)
♦ To monitor the scrap tire barrier
periodically and observe its physical
condition in the actual marine field.
♦ The scrap tire assembly may attract marine
growth and may sink over a period of time.
♦ In such case, it is necessary to assess the
rate of marine growth in order to estimate
the buoyancy requirement for the scrap tire
barrier per unit volume/unit surface area.

36. Polyurethane
Buoys

37. Important Literatures on Environmental
aspects of Scrap Tires
♦ Zelibor (1991)
♦ Ealding (1992)
♦ Day et al. (1993)
♦ Downs et al. (1996)
♦ Evans (1997)
♦ Al-Tabbaa and Aravithan (1998)
♦ Jang et al. (1998)
♦ Hartwell et al. (1998)
♦ Collins et al. (2002)
♦ Azizian and Nelson (2003)
♦ Selbes (2009).

38. Some important conclusions from
the literatures:
♦ The best condition for using scrap tire chips in
environmental reuse applications was found to be
around the neutral pH conditions.
♦ When tire (chips) was exposed to acidic
conditions, iron was the most significant metal
leaching from tires at very large quantities (up to
~800 mg / 100 g tire).

39. Some important conclusions from the
literatures (Contd..):
♦ When the tire (chips) was exposed to basic
conditions, the leaching of Dissolved
Organic Compound (DOC) significantly
increased, reaching 27 mg / 100 g tire.
♦ The mass of DOC leached during the first
12 hr consisted of 40-50% of the leaching
during the first week and 20-25% of the
leaching during the four weeks.

40. Some important conclusions
from the literatures (Contd..):
♦ Leaching reduces with increase in size of
the tire chips. It means, if the whole tire is
used for the marine application (rather than
cut pieces), the leaching intensity will be
less.
♦ Leaching properties of a scrap tire
decreases with higher water salinity and
increases with higher water temperatures.
(Collins, 2002)

41. CONCLUSIONS
♦ REUSE OF SCRAP TIRES in the
Kuwaiti marine environment as
WAVE BARRIERS looks like an
attractive solution
♦ Thorough EIA is needed based
on long term leaching and
other environment study

42. Conclusions (Contd..)
♦ Optimization of Floating tire
assembly is needed.
♦ Proven engineering design is a
must, since report on
engineering failures are plenty.
♦ A pilot plant study is needed
for proving its suitability for
Kuwait.

43. Conclusions (Contd..)
♦1 million scrap tire is sufficient to
build floating barriers of about 500
to 700 m long (Conventional rubble
mound barrier in 2 m water depth
costs about KD. 500,000/- to
700,000/-).

44. References
♦ Al-Tabbaa A. and Aravithan T. (1998). Natural clay-shredded tire mixtures as landfill barrier
materials, Waste Management 18, 9-16.
♦ Azizian M., Nelson P. O., Thyumanavan P. and Williamson K.J. (2003). Environmental impact of
highway construction and repair materials on surface and ground waters: Case study: Crumb rubber
asphalt concrete. Waste Management 23, 719-728.
♦ Candle, R.D. and D.R. Piper. (1974).
The proposed Goodyear modular mat type scrap tire scrap tire wave barrier. Report published by
Goodyear Publisher, Origin: TU Delft, The Netherlands; Repository Hydraulic Engineering Reports.
♦ Collins, K. J., A. C. Jensen and S. Albert. (1995). A Review of Waste Tire Utilization in the Marine
Environment. Chemistry and Ecology, 10 (3-4), pp. 205-216.
♦ Collins, K.J., Jensen, A.C., Mallinson, J.J., Roenelle, V. and Smith, I.P. (2002). Environmental
impact assessment of a scrap tire artificial reef. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 59: S243-S249.
♦ Day, K.E., K.E. Holtze, J.L. Metcalfe-Smith, C.T. Bishop, and B.J. Dutka (1993). Toxicity of
leachate from automobile tires to aquatic biota. Chemosphere. 27 (4), pp.665-675.
♦ Downs L.A., Humphrey D.N.; Katz L.E. and Rock C.A. (1996). Water quality effects of using tire
shreds below the groundwater table. Technical Report 94-I, Department of Civil Environmental
Engineering, University of Maine, Orono.
♦ Ealding W. (1992). Final report on leachable metals in scrap tires. Virginia Department of
Transportation.

45. References (Contd..)
♦ Evans, J.J. (1997). Rubber Tire Leachates in the Aquatic Environment,
Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, 1997, Vol. 151, pp. 67-115.
♦ Goda, Y. and Y. Suzuki. (1976). Estimation of incident and reflected waves in random wave
experiments. Proc. of 15th
Coastal Engineering Conference, pp. 828-845.
♦ Gu, R.R., (2005). Beneficial Reuses of Scrap Tires in Hydraulic Engineering. The Handbook of
Environmental Chemistry, 2005, Vol. 5F, pp.183-215.
♦ Hartwell, S. I., D. M. Jordahl, C. E. O. Dawson and A. S. Ives. (1998). Toxicity of Scrap Tire
Leachates in Estuarine Salinities: Are Tires Acceptable for Artificial Reefs?. Transactions of the
American Fisheries Society , 127 (5), pp.796-806.
♦ Harms, V W. (1979). Data and Procedures for the Design of Floating Tire Breakwaters.
Accession No. 00198700; National Technical Information Service. 5301 Shawnee Road,
Alexandria, VA 22312 USA, Order Number: PB-297187/7ST. 122 pages.
♦ Hibarger, G.E., G. G. Hibarger and D. W. Daniel. (1979). Breakwater System. US Patent
No.4150909.
♦ Jang, J.W., Yoo, T.S., Oh, J. H., and Iwasaki, I. (1998). Discarded tire recycling practices in the
United States, Japan and Korea. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 22 (1-2), pp.1-14.

46. References (Contd..)
♦ Koftis, T. and Prinos, P. (2005). On the hydrodynamic efficiency of scrap tire wave barriers. Arabian
Coast Conference, Dubai.
♦ Kowalski, T. (1974a). Scrap Tire Scrap tire wave barriers. In: Rhode Island University Marine
Technical Report Series No. 24, p 233-246, 1974.
♦ Kowalski, T. (1974b). Scrap Tire Scrap tire wave barriers. Scrap tire wave barriers Conference,
Newport, Rhode Island, April 23-25, 1974.
♦ McGregor, R. C., and N.S. Miller (1978). Scrap tire breakwaters in Coastal Engineering. Chapter
132, Proc. Of 15th
Coastal Engineering Conference-1978, pp.2190-2208.
♦ McGregor, R.C. (1978). The design of scrap-tyre scrap tire wave barriers with special reference to
fish farms. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Section B. Biological Sciences, 76 (1-3),
January 1978, pp. 115-133.
♦ Murali, K. and J.S. Mani. (1997). Performance of Cage Scrap tire wave barrier, Journal of
Waterway, Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering 123(4), pp.172-179.
♦ Neelamani, S., Al-Hulail, F. and Al-Shatti, F. (2012). Design, Development and Prototype Testing of
Wave Barriers Using Scrap Tires. Research proposal, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research.

47. References (Contd..)
♦ Q8NRI.com. (2010). Statistics reveal one car for every two persons in Kuwait. 10th
October 2010.
♦ Selbes, M. (2009). Leaching of dissolved organic carbon and selected inorganic constituents from
scrap tires. Master thesis. Graduate school of Clemson University,
♦ Shaw, G. and Ross, N. (1977). How to build a floating tire breakwater
Publ. by: UM/UNH, Durham, NH (USA)., Sept. 1977, Inf. Bull. Maine /NH Coop. Inst. Sea Grant
Program, 14 pages.
♦ US EPA Report, (2010). Scrap tires: Handbook on recycling applications and management for US
and Mexico. US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington DC, EPA 530-R-10-010,
December 2010.
♦ Yu, K.C. and Yu, Y.C. (2009). The Experimental Study of the Floating Tire Breakwater,
Airitilibrary, pp.42-53.
♦ Zelibor J. L. (1991). The RMA TCLP assessment project: Leachate from tire samples. Scrap Tire
Management Council.
♦