Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) Geofoam Unit Cells with Fly Ash

This paper reports the engineering behavior of proposed expanded polystyrene (EPS) geofoam unit cells with fly ash inside the core of cell. EPS geofoam unit cell were prepared with four different densities of EPS geofoam material i.e. 15, 20, 22, and 30 kg/m(3) with heights 50, 75, and 100 mm. The fly ash was compacted inside the core of unit cell at its optimum moisture content in layers of 25 mm height. The compression tests were performed on proposed composite material to study the stress-strain behavior, effect of density of EPS geofoam and height of unit cell along with the failure patterns. Compressive stress-strain curves for EPS geofoam showed increase in compressive strength with increased density of material. On the other hand, EPS geofoam unit cell with fly ash showed a decrease in the compressive strength with increase in the density of EPS geofoam material. Also, increase in the height of EPS geofoam unit cell resulted in decrease in the compressive strength. For a particular height of the EPS geofoam cell, compressive strength decreases marginally with increase in the density of EPS geofoam. Different failure patterns were observed for the each height of the unit cell tested.