Compressive Strength of Concrete Containing Expanded Polystyrene Styrofoam (EPS) Concrete and Partial Cement Replacement of Fly Ash and Silica Fume

Abstract

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) waste is generated by industry and post-consumer products. This is non-biodegradable, but is often disposed of by incineration or landfill, resulting in environmental pollution. Fly ash (FA) is a waste product from coal-fired power plants, and silica fume is a by-product of the smelting process in the production of silicon and ferrosilicon alloys. Both materials cause environmental pollution. Instead of disposing of them, there is a better way to put them to good use, such as EPS concrete (EPSC), by using EPS as a coarse aggregate and a mixture of fly ash and silica fume as a partial cement replacement. In this study, different mixes were investigated in which 100% of the coarse aggregate was replaced by EPS beads and the cement was replaced by a mixture of FA and SF at 20%, 25%, and 30%. Several laboratory tests were performed, including a slump test, a density test, a compressive strength test, and an ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) test. Based on the data obtained, the optimum EPSC mix is EPSC3 (20% FA,5% SF) with 25% cement replacement and a compressive strength of 12.8 MPa at 28 days. The total slump of EPSC ranges from 65 mm to 173 mm and the total density ranges from 1562.6 kg/m3 to 1619.4 kg/m3