Effect of polystyrene aggregate size on strength and moisture migration characteristics of lightweight concrete

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of polystyrene aggregate size on strength and moisture migration characteristics of lightweight concrete. The present study covers the use of expanded polystyrene (EPS) and un-expanded polystyrene (UEPS) beads as lightweight aggregate in concretes that contain fly ash as a supplementary cementitious material. Lightweight concrete with wide range of concrete densities (1000–1900 kg/m3) were studied mainly for compressive strength, split tensile strength, moisture migration and absorption. The results indicate that for comparable aggregate size and concrete density, concrete with UEPS aggregate exhibited 70% higher compressive strength than EPS aggregate. EPS aggregate concrete with small EPS aggregates showed higher compressive strength and the increase in compressive strength was more pronounced in low density concrete when compared with high density concrete. The UEPS aggregate concrete exhibited brittle failure similar to normal weight concrete (NWC), whereas, gradual failure was observed in EPS concrete. Moreover, the moisture migration and absorption results indicate that the EPS concrete containing bigger size and higher volumes of EPS aggregate show higher moisture migration and absorption.