Abstract
This paper aims to study the fresh, thermal and mechanical properties of lightweight concrete (LWC) incorporating expanded polystyrene foam (EPS) beads as a lightweight aggregate (LWA). Various mixtures of EPS foamed concrete are produced by partial replacing normal aggregates by 0%, 15%, 25%, 35% and 50% of EPS foam beads by volume. In EPS foamed concrete, the ordinary Portland cement (OPC) was replaced by silica fume (SF) with different ratios 0%, 5%, 10 and 15% by weight. Sixteen mixtures are prepared to investigate the fresh, thermal and mechanical properties of EPS foamed concrete. The test program includes determination of fresh density, slump, compacting factor, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, flexural strength, modulus of elasticity and thermal conductivity. Generally, using of EPS beads in concrete decreases its mechanical properties and thermal conductivity, although the workability improvement. Replacing the OPC with SF improves the mechanical properties of EPS foamed concrete, this improvement continues to the percentage of 10% and ultimate improvement in the ratio of 5%. Modulus of elasticity improves in EPS foamed concrete with SF content till 25% EPS foam. The workability of EPS foamed concrete decreases with the increasing of SF ratios.
Highlights
Using alternative affordable and sustainable products is a trend already well-established among the worldwide research community [1]
Most of researchers found during this study show that an increase in expandable polystyrene (EPS) foam content will lead to a decrease in the compressive strength and other mechanical properties of concrete [9-11]
Density The fresh EPS foamed concrete density varies from 2262 kg/m3 to 1509 kg/m3
Summary
Using alternative affordable and sustainable products is a trend already well-established among the worldwide research community [1]. To produce lightweight concrete with a wide range of densities it can use the Polystyrene beads as an aggregate, which can be incorporate into concrete or mortar [3]. EPS foams have a cellular microstructure with closed cell membranes made of expandable polystyrene (EPS) and its density was less than 50 kg/m3 [4]. Recent applications of EPS lightweight concrete include cladding panels, curtain walls, composite flooring systems, load-bearing concrete blocks, sub-base material for pavements, and floating marine structures. Because it had a good energy-absorbing characteristic of LWC, so it is used as impact-resistant structural protection layers, [5]
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