Post-Fire Mechanical Properties of Concrete Incorporating Waste EPS (Styrofoam) as Aggregate Replacement

Abstract

Reusing waste is one of the most recent topics and one of the main contributors to sustainability. It is known that concrete is one of the most common materials to produce different types of construction members around the world. That is due to mainly its low cost, availability, long period of durability, and ability to withstand harsh environments. On the other hand, due to the rapid changes that have happened in the last few decades in the production of decorative materials, some material types of cladding are used for decoration purposes, such as Styrofoam (EPS) (trade name “Astropol”), which is developed from disposal materials. Discovering and implementing a method of reusing these wastes in concrete is beneficial for the environment to reduce waste around the globe. In the current study, Styrofoam (Astropol) waste was used as a replacement for fine aggregate since concrete structures contain this material in their composition. It is important to test these materials for fire resistance and expose them to an elevated temperature in order to discover the post-fire mechanical properties of the composite material. The experimental result showed that the post-fire compressive strength of concrete containing different ratios of EPS (Astropol) increases compared to conventional concrete. The compressive strengths were 19.94 MPa, 19.295 MPa, 16.806 MPa, and 17.66 MPa for 0%, 15%, 25%, and 50%, respectively, while the post-fire indirect tensile strength for all specimens containing EPS reduced as the fire duration and temperature increased.