Abstract
The present study evaluated the combined effects of two types of waste materials of expanded polystyrene (EPS) and unprocessed fly ash (FA) on different properties of concrete. A novel recycling technique of densifying waste EPS is used to produce a novel lightweight aggregate (LWA). This new technique has solved the problem of segregation in concrete by coating EPS particles with a natural binder of clay and cement. Nine different concrete mixtures with a water to cement ratio of 0.8 were used. The densified EPS and unprocessed FA were partially replaced with natural aggregate and Portland cement, respectively. The engineering properties, including workability, density, compressive strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), and water absorption (WA) were investigated at different curing times. According to the experimental results, there is a decrease in compressive strength and UPV with increasing this novel LWA content in concrete. However, by using a suitable mix design, the utilisation of these two waste materials in concrete using an appropriate recycling technique is possible.
Highlights
Normal concrete is basically made of natural coarse aggregates, natural fine aggregates, Portland cement and water and, each one of these main ingredients, to a different level, has an environmental effect [1]
The increasing of consistency continued up to 60% stabilised polystyrene (SPS) content started to decrease for concrete containing 100% SPS
This was mainly due to the high water absorption of SPS aggregate compared with natural aggregate
Summary
Normal concrete is basically made of natural coarse aggregates, natural fine aggregates, Portland cement and water and, each one of these main ingredients, to a different level, has an environmental effect [1]. Depending on their chemical compositions and physical properties, many waste materials including by-products can be used in concrete mixtures as aggregates or cementitious materials; concrete can become an environmentally-sustainable material [2]. It can be partially replaced with natural coarse and/or fine aggregates to produce lightweight aggregate concrete (LWAC). LWAC is an important material in reducing the dead-weight of concrete complying with special concrete structures of high-rise buildings [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
