geofoam as a structural fill

huangyhg

geofoam as a structural fill
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
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
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 (visitor)3 aug 01 18:59
contact dawit negussey at syracuse university at the geofoam r
esearch institute.  
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.
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.
you can also check out ajvoton.com for information on lightweight foam concrete
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.