The Effect of Adding of Polystyrene on the Engineering Properties of Clay Soil

Abstract

Soil reinforcement technique is a method for improving the engineering properties of soil to develop parameters such as shear strength, compressibility and absorption of tensile loads. By incorporating materials that resist tensile stress and shear stresses to improve soil strength. Recently, traditional inert materials were replaced with material waste material. Useful materials can be produced from non-useful waste materials leads to use the plastic products like polystyrene. The main idea this research was to conduct experimental investigation for the understanding and evaluation of the interaction between clay soils and polystyrene. In purpose of examination of the effect the induced materials on behaviors of the clay; tests were carried out on different portions of polystyrene contents to test the unconfined compression. The results showed that increasing the EPS content decreased the maximum dry density while increasing the optimum moisture content. The addition of EPS to the soil would reduction of unconfined compression strength (UCS). Reinforced specimens, on the other hand, tended to reach their peak strength at higher strains. The addition of EPS chips reduces the weight of the soil while increasing its flexibility.