Fabrication and Compressive Properties of Expanded Polystyrene Foamed Concrete: Experimental Research and Modeling

doi:10.1007/s12204-013-1369-2

Abstract

Abstract: As the construction of high-rise building becomes popular, improvement and innovation are required to expand the product line of lightweight concrete. In this paper, two ways of fabricating lightweight concrete were combined to make a new kind of super lightweight concrete. Normal aggregate is replaced with expanded polystyrene (EPS) granule, while foam is introduced to facilitate fabrication process. As a result, super lightweight concrete denoted as EPS foamed concrete is fabricated, whose bulk density is less than 500 kg/m3. Compressive properties of EPS foamed concrete with bulk density 300—500 kg/m3 were investigated by stress-strain curve. It’s demonstrated that the compressive strength ranges from 0.7 to 2.5MPa, which is higher than that of similar products. Furthermore, low elastic module and high residual to ultimate strength ratio ensure its excellent deformation and energy absorption capacity. At last, numerical analysis was performed to interpret the inherent variation of elastic modulus and failure mechanism of this material. The results show that EPS foamed concrete is a kind of super lightweight, easy to fabricate material with excellent compressive property and profound utilization potential.

Key words: expanded polystyrene (EPS) foamed concrete| compressive property| stress-strain curve

摘要： As the construction of high-rise building becomes popular, improvement and innovation are required to expand the product line of lightweight concrete. In this paper, two ways of fabricating lightweight concrete were combined to make a new kind of super lightweight concrete. Normal aggregate is replaced with expanded polystyrene (EPS) granule, while foam is introduced to facilitate fabrication process. As a result, super lightweight concrete denoted as EPS foamed concrete is fabricated, whose bulk density is less than 500 kg/m3. Compressive properties of EPS foamed concrete with bulk density 300—500 kg/m3 were investigated by stress-strain curve. It’s demonstrated that the compressive strength ranges from 0.7 to 2.5MPa, which is higher than that of similar products. Furthermore, low elastic module and high residual to ultimate strength ratio ensure its excellent deformation and energy absorption capacity. At last, numerical analysis was performed to interpret the inherent variation of elastic modulus and failure mechanism of this material. The results show that EPS foamed concrete is a kind of super lightweight, easy to fabricate material with excellent compressive property and profound utilization potential.

关键词: expanded polystyrene (EPS) foamed concrete| compressive property| stress-strain curve

CLC Number:

TU 52

WU Zhen (吴震), CHEN Bing* (陈兵), LIU Ning (刘宁). Fabrication and Compressive Properties of Expanded Polystyrene Foamed Concrete: Experimental Research and Modeling[J]. Journal of shanghai Jiaotong University (Science), 2013, 18(1): 61-69.

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