Construction and Building Materials 68 (2014) 227–232

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Experimental study of the influence of EPS particle size

on the mechanical properties of EPS lightweight concrete
Ning Liu, Bing Chen ⇑
Department of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200240, PR China

h i g h l i g h t s

 The expression for the normalised compressive strengths of EPS concrete prediction was established.
 The effects of EPS particles size on the mechanical properties of EPS concrete were studied.
 Ultrasonic testing was used to determine the damage process of EPS concrete during loading.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Expanded polystyrene (EPS) concrete is a new lightweight building material that exhibits good mechan-
Received 25 April 2014 ical properties and a priori mechanical features that are suitable for the construction industry. The
Received in revised form 7 May 2014 mechanical properties of EPS concrete were determined to be related to the concrete matrix and particle
Accepted 29 June 2014
size of EPS. The compressive strength, tensile strength and flexural strength of EPS concrete with different
size of EPS particles were compared in this paper. Based on the results of the compressive strength tests, a
compressive strength expression was proposed. Ultrasonic testing was performed during the processes of
Keywords:
loading up to uniaxial compressive failure. The ultrasonic testing results indicated that the mechanical
Expanded polystyrene (EPS)
Lightweight concrete
properties of EPS concrete are related to the EPS particle size and the granules content and that the ultra-
Mechanical properties sonic testing method can detect damage of EPS concrete during the loading process.
Ultrasonic Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction EPS concrete is a mixture consisting of cement, sand and poly-

The demand for light-weight concrete in modern construction
applications, such as high rise buildings, offshore structures and
long span bridges, is increasing [1]. This interest arises from the
decreasing volume of many load-bearing elements, as well as the
superior thermal properties of lightweight compared to conven-
tional concrete. Lightweight concrete can be obtained by introduc-
ing gas (or foam) into the paste or by totally or partially replacing
the standard aggregate with low-weight and preferentially
low- cost components. Foam concrete has been widely used in
non-structural applications [2–4]. In general, lightweight aggre-
gate are broadly classified into two types: natural (e.g., pumice,
diatomite and volcanic cinder) and artificial (e.g., perlite, clay, sin-
tered fly ash and expanded shale). Polystyrene beads are a widely
used aggregate and can be easily incorporated into concrete or
mortar to produce light-weight concrete with a wide range of
densities [5–8].
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 21 54705110.
E-mail address: hntchen@sjtu.edu.cn (B. Chen).
styrene aggregate. The research on EPS concrete can be traced back
to 1973, when Cook investigated EPS as the aggregate of concrete
[9]. In recent years, considerable research has examined EPS con-
crete, including experimental and theoretical research. It has been
demonstrated that the mechanical properties of EPS concrete can
be significantly improved with the additional of silica fume, fly
ash, or bonding additives to the concrete matrix [10,11]. Several
researchers developed numerical models to analyse and predict
the properties of EPS concretes [12–15]. All of these studies have
promoted the applications of EPS concrete in construction indus-
try. Currently, EPS light concrete is used in various structures, such
as cladding panels, curtain walls, composite flooring systems,
load-bearing concrete blocks, sub-base materials for use in
pavement, floating marine structures, and protective layers of
structures used for impact resistance, due to its good energy-
absorbing characteristics.
Previous research indicated that the compressive strength of
EPS lightweight concrete increases with a decrease in EPS bead size
for the same concrete density [16]. This scaling phenomenon
was first observed by Roy et al. on the basis of an experimental

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2014.06.062
0950-0618/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
228 N. Liu, B. Chen / Construction and Building Materials 68 (2014) 227–232

investigation aiming to formulate and optimise an EPS concrete Table 2

with a density ranging from 600 to 1400 kg/m3 and possessing a The gradation of aggregates.

structural strength of over 20 MPa [16]. Later, this phenomenon Sieve size Grading of aggregate cumulative passing (%)
was confirmed by Ganesh Babu et al. [5] and Chen and Fang [17] Fine aggregate Polystyrene aggregate
Recently, Miled and Roy performed research on this phenomenon
Type A Type B
and developed a mathematical model to predict the strength
[13,14]. The present study investigated the effects of different par- 9.5 mm 100 100 100
4.75 mm 100 100 100
ticle sizes and different particle distributions on the mechanical 2.36 mm 100 100 0
properties of EPS concrete. Furthermore, the failure process of 1.18 mm 83 100 0
EPS concrete was also studied using the ultrasonic testing method. 600 lm 55 0 0
300 lm 30 0 0
150 lm 3 0 0
2. Experimental details Density: kg/m3 2500 30 17

2.1. Materials and mix proportions

ASTM Type I ordinary Portland cement (OPC) with a 28-day compressive

strength of 51.5 MPa was used as a basic cementitious material for all the mixtures. 0.3–0.5 MPa/s. The loading rate of the flexural strength test was 0.02–0.05 MPa/s.
The silica fume was a dry uncompacted powder from Elken Materials with a SiO2 The elastic modulus test was performed in the RMT-150B rock mechanics test sys-
content of 92.4%. The detailed chemical composition of the cementitious materials tem with a displacement based loading at a loading rate of 0.005 mm/s.
is shown in Table 1. Fine aggregates with special gradation were selected for the
concrete, as shown in Table 2. Two types of commercially available single-size
spherical EPS beads (Type A and B) were chosen in the studies. The grading and 3. Test results and discussion
properties of the EPS are presented in Table 2. A naphthalene-based super-plasticis-
er was used to produce the mixes of flowable or highly flexible nature to suit the
A summary of the results is presented in Table 4. The 28-day
hand compaction adopted.
In the design of mix proportions, the EPS volume fraction (p) considered here as
axial compressive strength of most of the EPS concrete specimens
the concrete (macro) porosity was determined by the following formula [14]: in the paper were determined to reach 12 MPa, which meets the
requirement of concrete structure.
qmatrix  qconcrete
p¼ ð1Þ Compared with the designed densities presented in Table 3, the
qmatrix  qEPS
true densities of the EPS concrete are higher. These results indicate
where qmatrix , qconcrete and qEPS are the densities of matrix, EPS concrete and EPS that the true volume fraction of EPS is lower than the designed vol-
particles, respectively. qmatrix is the density of cement paste without EPS particles.
ume fraction, which is consistent with the results in Refs. [18–20].
qconcrete is the density of EPS concrete with the same mix proportion. qEPS is 30 kg/
m3 in this paper. The mix proportion of the EPS concrete is presented in Table 3. The higher densities are mainly due to the EPS aggregates being
compressed by hydrostatic pressure during the mixing process,
2.2. Mixing of EPS concrete
which results in the higher density.

The concrete was mixed in a planetary mixer of 30 l capacity. Water, super-
plasticiser, silica fume, sand and cement were successively introduced into the
mixer. After 5 min of mixing, when the matrix became homogeneous, polystyrene
beads were introduced, and the mixing was continued until a uniform and flowing
mixture was obtained. The fresh concrete densities for each specimen were mea-
sured immediately after mixing, and the fresh concrete was poured into moulds
and compacted by hand.
2.3. Casting, curing and testing of concrete specimens
A number of standard test specimens of different size were chosen to study var-
ious properties. Cubes of 100 mm3 size were used to study the compressive
strength and the splitting tensile strength at 3, 7, 14, and 28 days. Prisms of
100 mm  100 mm  300 mm and 100 mm  100 mm  400 mm were used for
axial compressive strength testing and flexural strength testing, respectively, at 3,
7, 14, 28 and 60 days.
For each batch, 36 cubes of 100 mm3 size, 12 prisms with dimension of
100 mm  100 mm  300 mm and 12 prisms with dimension 100 mm 
100 mm  400 mm were cast. The specimens were stripped approximately 24 h
after casting and placed in a fog room (95 ± 3) % RH, (22 ± 2) °C. The compressive
strength test, axial compressive strength test and splitting tensile strength test
were performed in a testing machine of 2 MN capacity at a loading rate of
3.1. Compressive strength
The variation of the axial compressive strength with age for dif-
ferent mixtures is shown in Fig. 1. The axial compressive strength
of EPS concrete in almost all mixes is observed to exhibit a contin-
uous increase with the age. The rate of increase of the strength is
higher at the initial stage and subsequently decreases as the age
proceeds, which is consistent with the results of recent
studies.[21,22]
To illustrate the relationship between the compressive strength
of EPS concrete and the EPS volume fraction (p), the compressive
strength values were normalised, given by the ratio fc =fM , where
fc is the compressive strength of EPS concrete with a given EPS vol-
ume fraction, and fM is the matrix strength. The variation of fc =fM
plotted versus the EPS volume fraction (p) is presented in Fig. 2.
Previous research results indicated that the strength of EPS con-
crete is related to the strength of the matrix. To establish the com-
pressive strength model, the following assumptions were made:

(1) The compressive strength of the EPS concrete is proportional

Table 1 to the strength of the matrix.
Chemical composition of cementitious materials. (2) The compressive strength of the EPS concrete tends to the
value of the matrix strength as the volume fraction of EPS
OPC Condensed silica fume
tends to zero.
Chemical composition (%)
(3) The compressive strength of the EPS concrete tends to zero
Silicon dioxide (SiO2) 21.60 92.4
Aluminium oxide (Al2O3) 4.13 0.80 as the volume fraction of EPS reaches the maximum packing
Ferric oxide (Fe2O3) 4.57 0.50 density.
Calcium oxide (CaO) 64.44 0.91
Magnesium oxide (MgO) 1.06 0.27 Thus, the EPS concrete compressive strength, for a given EPS
Sodium oxide (Na2O) 0.11 –
Potassium oxide (K2O) 0.56 –
volume fraction (p) and matrix strength (fM), can be expressed as:
Sulphur trioxide (SO3) 1.74 – h p i
Loss on ignition 0.76 2.00 fc ¼ 1:05 exp  0:05 fM
a
 N. Liu, B. Chen / Construction and Building Materials 68 (2014) 227–232 229

Table 3
Details of EPS concrete mixes.

Mix number q (kg/m3) Design density (kg/m3)

Cement Fine aggregate SF Superplasticizer Water EPS aggregate
Type A Type B
EM 919.58 751.42 275.90 17.93 311.29 – – 2276
E110 798.29 652.31 239.42 15.51 270.27 2.64 – 1978
E130 654.39 534.73 196.39 12.82 221.47 5.76 – 1626
E145 516.44 421.98 155.00 10.08 174.96 8.76 – 1287
E155 422.52 345.33 126.76 8.21 143.03 10.90 – 1057
E1510 791.84 646.76 237.38 15.38 267.97 0.34 2.13 1962
E1530 651.57 532.43 195.55 12.77 220.52 0.70 4.48 1618
E1545 516.26 421.80 154.84 10.18 174.86 1.05 6.75 1286
E1555 424.05 346.56 127.21 8.24 143.56 1.29 8.30 1059

Table 4
Strengths and densities of EPS concrete mixes.

Mix Volume fraction of Resulting density Axial compressive strength Compressive strength Splitting tensile strength Flexural strength
number EPS (%) (kg/m3) (MPa) (MPa) (MPa) (MPa)
3d 7d 14 d 28 d
EM 0.00 2084 20.8 27.5 34.8 37.9 62.6 8.89 9.55
E110 8.90 1900 19.9 23.2 28.3 30.0 46.3 6.85 9.11
E130 20.9 1652 10.3 15.1 19.7 21.5 23.6 5.37 6.87
E145 31.0 1444 7.82 15.3 17.5 20.7 20.3 4.24 5.79
E155 46.0 1134 5.23 10.0 12.3 12.4 12.2 2.40 3.72
E1510 13.1 1814 14.7 18.9 25.0 29.4 37.8 5.77 6.21
E1530 25.0 1570 10.7 11.1 15.1 13.9 17.4 4.53 5.40
E1545 38.0 1300 6.3 8.0 9.9 11.9 11.6 2.77 3.99
E1555 46.5 1124 2.68 3.8 4.5 6.1 7.5 1.38 3.39

where, fc, fM and p are the compressive strength of the matrix, the
compressive strength of the EPS concrete and the volume fraction,
respectively. a is the parameter related to the EPS particle size
and size distribution. For 1-mm EPS particles, a is 0.28. For a
1-mm + 5-mm particle size distribution used in the paper (volume
ratio 12:88), a is 0.24. From Fig. 3, the test results are found to be
in good agreement with the value calculated by the expression.
The correlation coefficients of the 1 mm particles and the
1-mm + 5-mm particles are 0.987 and 0.992, respectively, which
are notably close to 1.0.
The variation of the axial compressive strength plotted against
the elastic modulus is presented in Fig. 4. The elastic modulus is
observed to increase with the increase of the axial compressive
strength. Compared to normal concrete, as shown in Fig. 4, for
the same axial compressive strength, the elastic modulus of EPS
concrete is much smaller, which indicates a larger deformation
capacity of the EPS concrete.
3.2. Splitting tensile strength
Similar to the compressive strength, the splitting tensile
strength of the EPS concrete also decreased with increasing EPS
volume fraction, as shown in Fig. 5. The decrease of the tensile
strength is primarily due to the decrease of the valid stress area
with the increase of the volume fraction of EPS, while the packing
density has little effect on the tensile strength. During the testing
of the splitting tensile strength, the EPS concrete did not exhibit
the same splitting behaviour as that observed in normal concretes.
The failure observed was more gradual, and the specimens did not
separate into two pieces, which reflected the toughness of the EPS
concrete. The variation of the tension/compression ratio with EPS
volume fraction is shown in Fig. 6. The tension–compression ratio
is observed to initially increase with the increase in the volume
fraction followed by a decrease. This behaviour is primarily due
to the good deformation ability of the EPS concrete. During the pro-
cess of tensile splitting, the EPS concrete was greatly deformed,
which caused the contact between concrete surface and the arc
steel pad change from linear to surface and increased the stress
area, leading to the increase of the failure value. However, the
process of failure of ordinary concrete is ensured to be a line load
because of its high stiffness and small deformation. Therefore, it is
not appropriate to determine the tensile strength by splitting
tensile strength testing.
3.3. Flexural strength
Fig. 6 shows the variation of flexural strength with EPS volume
fraction. The flexural strength of EPS concrete is found to decrease
linearly with an increase in EPS volume fraction. The flexural
strength of EPS concrete with 1-mm + 5-mm EPS particles is also
found to be lower than that of concrete with only 1-mm EPS
particles, which indicates that the large-size EPS particles greatly
weaken the flexural strength. The sketch of the effect of EPS
particle size on flexural section height is shown in Fig. 7. The major
reason for the reduction of the flexural strength is that the pres-
ence of large EPS particles decreases the flexural section height.
3.4. Ultrasonic testing
Fig. 8 shows the relationship between the ultrasonic velocity
and the EPS volume fraction. The ultrasonic velocity is observed
to decrease with the increase of the EPS volume fraction. The
density of EPS concrete deceases with the increase of the volume
fraction, resulting in the reduction of the ultrasonic velocity
towards that of ordinary concrete. Compared to a previous study
[21], the ultrasonic velocities measured in this paper are much
smaller, which may be related to the concrete with EPS particles.
230 N. Liu, B. Chen / Construction and Building Materials 68 (2014) 227–232

9 1mm
40 EM
E110
1mm+5mm
E130 8
Axial compressive strength /MPa

35
E145

Splitting tensile strength/MPa

E155 7
30 E1510
E1530 6
25 E1545
E1555 5
20
4
15
3
10
2

5 1

0 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Curing ages /d EPS volume fraction

Fig. 1. Variation of the axial compressive strength with age for different EPS Fig. 4. Effect of EPS volume fraction on the splitting tensile strength for different
concrete mixes. EPS concrete mixes.

1.1
0.28
1mm
1.0
1mm 1mm+5mm
0.26
0.9 1mm+5mm
Tension/compressive strength ratio

0.8 0.24
0.7
0.22
0.6
fc/fM

0.5 0.20

0.4
0.18
0.3

0.2 0.16

0.1
0.14
0.0
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
EPS volume fraction EPS volume fraction

Fig. 2. Variation of the compressive strength versus the EPS volume fraction. Fig. 5. Variation of the tension–compression ratio versus the EPS volume fraction.

10 1mm
1mm+5mm
40 1mm
9
1mm+5mm
normal concrete
35 8
Flexural strength/MPa

30
Elastic module/GPa

25
6
20
5
15
4
10
3
5
2
0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
EPS volume fraction
Axial compressive strength/MPa
Fig. 6. Effect of the EPS volume fraction on the flexural strength of different EPS
Fig. 3. Variation of the elastic modulus versus the axial compressive strength. concrete mixes.
 N. Liu, B. Chen / Construction and Building Materials 68 (2014) 227–232 231

Fig. 7. Sketch of effect of the EPS particle size on the flexural section height.

According to Fig. 9, the compression process of EPS concrete can

2600
1mm be divided into three stages:
1mm+5mm Stage I: During the process of r  6 0:3, the ultrasonic velocity
2500
does not change with the loading increasing. The micro-cracks
inside the concrete remain stable, and the fraction of them that
Ultrasonic velocity/m/s

2400 are perpendicular to the loading direction are closed under the
initial pressure. The specimen is compacted and its velocity
2300 remains stable. The EPS concrete can be considered as elastic dur-
ing this stage.
2200 Stage II: During the process of 0:3 < r  6 0:75, some larger
cracks are found in the EPS concrete. The ultrasonic velocity of
2100 most concrete changes sharply at r  ¼ 0:3 and reduces to 60–70%
of the original value. Subsequently, the velocity tends to be stable,
2000 which indicates that structural failure has not yet occurred com-
pletely. Meanwhile, the ultrasonic velocity of some EPS concretes
1900 does not change and decreases slowly with the load increasing,
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
indicating that internal cracks develop slowly. The cracks are stable
EPS volume fraction inside the concrete, and there is no loss of capacity. In this stage, no
Fig. 8. Effect of the EPS volume fraction on the ultrasonic velocity of different EPS
cracks occur on the surface of EPS concrete.
concrete mixes. Stage III: During the process of r  > 0:75, ultrasonic velocity
becomes unstable. The value of ultrasonic velocity, which did not
change in stage II, declines sharply and the ultrasonic velocity that
1.1 did change in stage II becomes unstable, exhibiting significant vari-
ations. At this time, many small cracks that are parallel with the
1.0 loading direction appeared on the surface of the EPS concrete.
The higher is the volume content of EPS, the higher is the number
0.9
of cracks. The cracks developed notably quickly and began cause
EM
0.8 the concrete to be unstable. The concrete block lost bearing capac-
E110
E130 ity gradually and the sound of a slight tear could be heard during
0.7
E145 the experiment. When the load was close to the ultimate load,
E150 the ultrasonic velocity of all the specimens declined to 60% of the
0.6
E1510
original velocity.
E1530
0.5 The internal structure of the EPS concrete is unique, and the
E1545
E1555 relationship between ultrasonic velocity and load is also different
0.4
from that of ordinary concrete, primarily because of its unique
0.3 energy absorption properties.

0.2
4. Conclusions
0.1
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
(1) EPS concretes of density of approximately 1100 kg/m3 and
the 28-day axial compressive strengths of approximately
Fig. 9. Variation of ultrasonic velocity with loading. 12 MPa are successfully developed, which achieve the inte-
gration of structure and function.
(2) The relationship between the compressive strength and the
The variation of compressive stress (r) plotted against ultra- volume fraction of the EPS concrete nearly follows an expo-
sonic velocity (t) is presented in Fig. 9, where r and t are the nor- nential decay, which is related to the particle size of the EPS
malised stress and ultrasonic velocity, which are calculated using and its composition.
the following equations: (3) The EPS particle size affects the flexural strength, primarily
affecting the reduction of the effective cross-section flexural
r ¼ r=rmax and t ¼ t=t0 height.
232 N. Liu, B. Chen / Construction and Building Materials 68 (2014) 227–232
(4) The method of ultrasonic testing can monitor the develop-
ment of cracks inside EPS concrete to a certain extent. The
failure process of EPS concrete can be divided into three
stages. However, due to the special internal structure of
the EPS concrete, the failure process is different from that
of ordinary concrete.
(5) The failure modes of EPS concrete is related to the EPS vol-
ume fraction: the higher the content, the better the plastic
deformation.
Acknowledgement
This research work was financially supported by the National
Natural Science Foundation of China, Grant No. 51378309.
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