Experimental and numerical investigation of expanded polystyrene (EPS) geofoam samples under monotonic loading

The recent increase in the use of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) geofoam in construction and geotechnical projects has driven researchers to investigate its behavior, more deeply. In this paper, a series of experimental tests to investigate the stress-strain behavior and the mechanical properties of EPS blocks, under monotonic axial loading are presented. Four different densities of cylindrically shaped EPS with different dimensions are used to investigate the effects of loading rate, height and diameter, as well as the influence of the density of EPS on the stress-strain response. The results show that increasing the height of the EPS samples leads to instability of the sample and consequent lower resistance to the applied pressure. Large EPS samples show higher Young’s modulus and compressive resistance due to some boundary effects. An increase in the rate of loading can increase the elastic moduli and compressive resistance of the EPS geofoam samples, which also varies depending on the density of the samples. It was also determined that the elastic modulus of EPS increases with increasing EPS density. By implementing an efficient numerical procedure, the stress-strain response of EPS geofoam samples can be reproduced with great accuracy. The numerical analysis based on the proposed method can used to evaluate the effect of different factors on the behavior of EPS geofoa