GeoFoam as a structural fill 1

[yakpol]

Hi, folks!
We are trying to use GeoFoam as a structural fill for the railroad. The vertical and longitudinal forces are very high, special worries are about shear transfer between layers o geofoam blocks. The force is about 40 lb/sft. If anybody has an experience in it or knows where to look? Please, help!

Yakov

 

[atomicman]

Yakov -

Were you ever able to find any information on this material? I am looking into using it for fill in an abutment for an elevated roadway, but need to learn more about it. My primary concern is how it acts in a seismic event. What sort of lateral loads would we expect to see from the foam blocks on the abutment wall?

TSM

 

[yakpol]

TSM, I found some mechanical properties of Geofoam EPS products like modulus elasticity and poisson ratio, so you can calculate lateral stiffness of the fill and calculate the displacements. I could fax you the sheet with the properties if you wish.

Yakov

 

[jims3]

contact Dawit Negussey at Syracuse University at the Geofoam R
esearch Institute.

 

[Ron]

This and similar material has been used for a long time as structural fill, particularly over incompetent materials. Using the EPS in conjunction with lightweight insulating cellular concrete fill will increase mechanical properties to cover about any condition a soil mixture could withstand, at significantly lower unit weight.

Check out

http://www.elastizel.com

or

http://www.maxflow.com

Both have geotechnical applications for cellular concrete.

 

[Rjakiel]

Is your application limited to GeoFoam (EPS) or can you use Lightweight Foam Concrete. If you can use lightweight foam concrete I have some information that may be useful regarding the transfer of lateral forces between lifts of this material.
rjakiel@kersur.net

 

[Rjakiel]

you can also check out ajvoton.com for information on lightweight foam concrete

 

[yakpol]

Rjakiel,
Thanks for suggestion. We, actually, used lightweight concrete (Elastizell, 30pcf) on the other project. Foam concrete is more expensive than geofoam and the project I described is about 3000 feet long.