Influencia de las perlas de poliestireno expandido (EPS) en el peso y en la resistencia a comprensión del hormigón

Abstract

In recent years, the construction industry has been using new, alternative materials in lightweight concrete production. Lightweight concrete is lighter than normal weight concrete (sand, cement, coarse aggregate, and water), which reduce transportation and mounting costs.

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is a material used worldwide to reduce weight in concrete. Specifically, EPS beads are being used to replace both coarse and fine aggregates. The main objective of this graduation paper is to determinate the effects of replacing specific percentages of sand with expanded polystyrene beads on the weight (density) and compressive strength of concrete.

An experimental design was developed to determine the sample size (number of cylinders) required to carry out the testing phase and to produce reliable and consistent results.

After the cylinders were tested, the statistically processed results showed that the concrete’s weight (density) decreased due to the low density of EPS beads, and the compressive strength of the concrete decreased as the percentage of EPS substituted for sand increased.

These results lead me to conclude that expanded polystyrene is a viable alternative for structural and non-structural lightweight concrete production.