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.

No abstract