Behavior of expanded polystyrene (EPS) blocks under cyclic pavement foundation loading

Siabil, S. M. A. Ghotbi; Tafreshi, S. N. Moghaddas; Dawson, A. R.; Parvizi Omran, M.

Abstract

This study introduces a mechanism for initial assessment and future development to improve understanding of expanded polystyrene (EPS) behavior as a super-lightweight material for road construction. Large scale cyclic plate load tests on model pavements were performed. The effect of several factors including thickness of soil, thickness of subsequent EPS layers and density of EPS on the surface deformations, resilient modulus (Mr) and interlayer pressure transfer were investigated. The results indicated that, compared to a covering soil layer of 300?mm, the rut depth on the loading surface reduced by 13.5% and 40.8% when the soil thickness was increased by 33% and 100%, respectively. With a constant soil thickness, increasing the thickness of an upper (denser) EPS layer with respect to a bottom (softer) EPS layer, from 200?mm to 600?mm, would only result in a 20% decrease in the peak settlements after loading. Resilient modulus of the system was found to be dependent on soil thickness. A designer can choose an appropriate resilient modulus assuming the soil-EPS composite acts as subgrade or subbase. In order to extend the results to a wider range of geofoams, soils and layer thicknesses, a simple stress analysis method was also trialed.

Citation

Siabil, S. M. A. G., Tafreshi, S. N. M., Dawson, A. R., & Parvizi Omran, M. (2019). Behavior of expanded polystyrene (EPS) blocks under cyclic pavement foundation loading. Geosynthetics International, 26(1), 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1680/jgein.18.00033

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 31, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Aug 13, 2018
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Dec 4, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 14, 2019
• Journal: Geosynthetics International
• Print ISSN: 1072-6349
• Electronic ISSN: 1751-7613
• Publisher: Thomas Telford
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-25
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1680/jgein.18.00033
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1363333
• Publisher URL: https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/10.1680/jgein.18.00033