Crushed EPS in Light Weight Concrete

Abstract

This paper gives light to the ideas of development and implementation of sustainable material to reduce the reliance on non-renewable resources which can be achieved by using light weight concrete in construction as the demand of light weight concrete is growing day by day. The availability of light weight aggregates and admixtures has made this approach easy. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is a material used for packaging of various products. Due to its voluminous, bulky nature and being non-biodegradable it has high resistivity towards chemical reactions so its disposal is an issue also when disposed in landfills it covers more space. This paper promotes the use of EPS in light weight concrete structures. Expanded Polystyrene concrete is used in modern applications such as thermally insulated partition walls, exterior walls, members of floating structures and deck of bridges. This work comprises of casting and testing of light weight concrete with EPS as an aggregate, fly ash as finer including sulphonated naphthalene (SN) based admixtures. A canoe is also designed and tested for floating capacity. The percentage ratio of EPS to cement is trialed between (0.25-0.3) by weight percent. As per IS 456-2000 clause 15-17 [1] testing light weight concrete cubes and after evaluating six different compositions, the optimum ratio was adopted.