EXPANDED POLYSTYRENE FIBRED LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETE (EPSF-LWC) AS A LOAD BEARING WALL PANEL

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the optimum mix proportion of lightweight concrete (LWC) containing expanded polystyrene (EPS) and steel fiber which is designated as Expanded Polystyrene Fibred Lightweight Concrete (EPSF-LWC) for load bearing wall application. In order to produce LWC, EPS beads were chosen as lightweight aggregate because it gives advantages in term of energy absorbing capacity which suitable for structure that would be exposed to impact like shear wall. However, EPS beads possess zero strength. Therefore, steel fibre was added to improve LWC strength and also to reduce occurrence of micro and macro crack. In the mix design method, the percentage of EPS beads adding to the mix are differ while the percentage of steel fibre is same. The result showed optimum mix design was the one that contained 30% of EPS and 0.5 % of steel fibre and is designated as M8. The compressive strength EPSF-LWC of mix proportion designated as M8 is 19.51 MPa with density 1939 kg/m3. It is greater than 17 MPa as the requirement for structure component application that stated in the BS8110. Hence, reinforced and unreinforced EPS-LWC wall panels were constructed to determine the maximum loading that wall can sustain and deflection profile EPSF-LWC wall panel for the loaded to failure. The wall was set up under pinned-fixed end support condition. The sample was modelled using finite element analysis (FEA) for validation with experimental programme. The maximum loading capacity was found to be 908.20 kN and 853.40 kN for each reinforced (WR5) and unreinforced (WUR5) of EPSF-LWC wall panel. These loading were 31% to 35% less than finite element analysis. However, WR5 and WUR5 EPSF-LWC wall panel was deformed in single curvature profile for both experimental and FEA. Maximum deflection for WR5and WUR5 of EPSF-LWC recorded is 10.27 mm and 12.95 mm occurred at 0.7 heights (H) of wall panel. According to Euler buckling load theory, the location of maximum lateral displacement of wall panel sample is influenced by the type of fixity at end support of the sample.