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Effect of EPS beads in lightening a typical zeolite and cement-treated sand

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Abstract

The current study aims to assess the influence of EPS beads inclusion on the strength properties of stabilized poorly-graded sands. Various contents of zeolite and cement as stabilizing agents, with the total amounts of 4, 8, and 12% by dry soil weight, and also 0, 0.25, and 0.5% weight ratios of EPS beads (\(\eta\)) are examined. Zeolite is opted among a variety of pozzolanic materials so as to replace a part of cement (0, 10, 30, 50, 70, and 90%) due to its superior environmentally friendly properties. The stress–strain behavior, unconfined compressive strength (UCS), peak strain energy (Eu), and California bearing capacity (CBR) of the zeolite and cement-treated sand-EPS beads mixtures are investigated through several mechanical tests. Results showed that zeolite incorporation (with the optimum value of 30% replacement) improves the UCS and CBR values significantly and the reduction observed by the use of EPS beads is well-compensated. At \(\eta =0.25\%\), the peak strain energy is also enhanced. Active composition (AC), which refers to the minimum value of CaO or the sum of Al2O3 and SiO2 in the mixture, is suggested to render a unique power equation that can readily estimate the UCS and CBR values. It was concluded that the increase of AC and porosity (n) of the mixture, respectively, increases and decreases the strength parameters. Therefore, by the increase of n/AC ratio, the values of strength parameters diminish. Finally, with the aid of the presented power formulas, high-accuracy equations are proposed to correlate the UCS and CBR values of the samples to the key parameter (n/AC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Guilan, Rasht, Guilan, Iran

    Aghileh Khajeh, Reza Jamshidi Chenari & Meghdad Payan

  2. Faculty of Civil Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

    Seyed Abolfazl Ebrahimi

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, Gonbad Kavous University, Gonbad, Iran

    Hossein MolaAbasi

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  1. Aghileh Khajeh
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  2. Seyed Abolfazl Ebrahimi
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Khajeh, A., Ebrahimi, S.A., MolaAbasi, H. et al. Effect of EPS beads in lightening a typical zeolite and cement-treated sand. Bull Eng Geol Environ 80, 8615–8632 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-021-02458-1

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