Flexural Behavior of Styrofoam-Filled Concrete

Abstract

Various kinds of innovations have been made to obtain lightweight concrete, for example using Styrofoam as partial replacement of aggregates. The objective of this study was to analyze the flexural behavior of Styrofoam-filled Concrete (SFC) by adding Styrofoam 30 % to replace the concrete volume. The testing was carried out on three variations specimens with a total of 6 specimens, which each variation consist of 2 specimens. The characteristic of Normal Concrete (NC) and SFC was first evaluated. Then, the behavior of SFC beam was compared with the behavior of NC beam and SFC with CFRP strengthening (SFC-CFRP). The specimens were statically loaded using two-point load system with constant speed ramp actuator at 0.1 mm/second until the beam failure. The results indicate that the strength of normal concrete (NC) and SFC has decreased with addition of 30% Styrofoam. However, when the SFC beam was combined with deformed bar, the ultimate bending strength of SFC specimens increase 12.6% compared to the NC specimens. Similarly, the ultimate strength of SFC-CFRP specimens improved by 39.74% compared to the SFC specimens.