Physical and mechanical properties of a bulk lightweight concrete with expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads and soft marine clay

Abstract

The variation of physical and mechanical properties of the lightweight bulk filling material with cement and expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads contents under different confining pressures is important to construction and geotechnical applications. In this study, a lightweight bulk filling material was firstly fabricated with Singapore marine clay, ordinary Portland cement and EPS. Then, the influences of EPS beads content, cement content, curing time and confining pressure on the mass density, stress-strain behavior and compressive strength of this lightweight bulk filling material were investigated by unconsolidated and undrained (UU) triaxial tests. In these tests, the mass ratios of EPS beads to dry clay (E/S) were 0%, 0.5%, 1%, 2%, and 4% and the mass ratios of cement to dry clay (C/S) were 10% and 15%. Thirdly, a series of UU triaxial tests were performed at a confining pressure of 0 kPa, 50 kPa, 100 kPa, and 150 kPa after three curing days, seven curing days, and 28 curing days. The results show that the mass density of this lightweight bulk filling material was mainly controlled by the E/S ratio. Its mass density decreased by 55.6% for the C/S ratio 10% and 54.9% for the C/S ratio 15% when the E/S ratio increased from 0% to 4% after three curing days. Shear failure more easily occurred in the specimens with higher cement content and lower confining pressure. The relationships between compressive strength and mass density or failure strain could be quantified by the power function. Increasing cement content and reducing EPS beads content will increase mass density and compressive strength of this lightweight bulk filling material. The compressive strength with curing time can be expressed by a logarithmic function with fitting correlation coefficient ranging from 0.83 to 0.97 for five confining pressures. These empirical formulae will be useful for the estimation of physical and mechanical properties of lightweight concretes in engineering application.