Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering Mataria, Helwan University
2
Construction Research Institute, National Water Research Centre, Egypt, El Qalyubia, Egypt
3
Professor of Geotechnical Engineering, , Faculty of Engineering Mataria, Helwan University
4
Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt.
Abstract
Expanded polystyrene geofoams (EPS) have gained importance in geotechnical engineering applications since 1960s. These materials serve multiple purposes, such as lightweight fills in the construction of structures, embankments, and bridges, as well as compressible inclusions in culverts and retaining walls. Most of these applications, geofoams are placed directly with other geofoam elements or other construction materials. A key challenge in designing such systems is to understand how geofoams interact with other construction materials. This requires an intensive examination of the shear strength behavior of geofoam, in addition to the shear strength interfaces with other materials such as geofoam, sand, concrete, and steel. The aim of this study is to determine the shear strength parameters of EPS geofoam blocks with different densities of 25, 30, and 35 kg/m³. To achieve this, multiple direct shear tests were conducted, which provided vital information regarding material performance. The findings proved a distinct relationship between density and shear behavior: a higher geofoam density corresponded to increased material cohesion and internal friction angle. This study also investigated the interface shear strength between EPS geofoam versus other construction materials for instance sand, geofoam, concrete, and steel. These experimental results provide valuable information for geotechnical engineers, allowing for more accurate analytical and numerical modeling of EPS–material structure interactions.
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