Effects of Expanded Polystyrene Beads on the Strength Properties of Brick Aggregate Concrete

Abstract

Bangladesh's construction industry has grown significantly over the past two decades. The construction industry is progressing at a faster speed, which has raised the raw demand for building materials. Finding an alternative to natural aggregate in concrete casting as a partial replacement is a smart concept to protect natural resources. Our environment is severely harmed by the production of bricks. On the other hand, polystyrene, a common plastic packaging material, degrades to harm the environment and produces useless plastic waste. To conserve natural resources, it can be a good idea to use plastic trash as a partial replacement for natural aggregate in concrete casting. The addition of EPS to concrete offers a variety of benefits. These include reduced self-weight in structures, lighter weights during construction, and higher thermal resistance. In this experiment on the characteristics of concrete structure, expanded polystyrene beads have been used in place of coarse aggregate in this experiment. In various combinations (1:1:2), (1:1.5:3), and (1:2:4), EPS beads replace 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30% of the volume of the course aggregate portion. The compressive strength, unit weight and splitting tensile strength of these mixes are all measured for the complete testing procedure. The optimal levels of compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and unit weight of 12.65 MPa, 1.89 MPa, and 46.28 kg/m3 respectively, and the normal concrete's compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and unit weight of about 19.16 MPa, 2.05 MPa, and 12.24 kg/m3 are successfully developed in Grade M25 EPS-based concrete with a replacement percentage of 10%. The results indicate that EPS beads have the potential to produce lightweight concrete with a moderate strength grade that might be used in a wide range of applications.