Effect of adding Combined Cementitious Zeolite and Silica Fume on Compressive and Flexural Strengths and the Final Cost of Structural Light Weight Concrete Containing Expanded Polystyrene

The high weight is one of the most important deficient of any building that has a direct role at damages caused during an earthquake, so the application of new lightweight material is one of the attractive research issues. The effectiveness of replacing Polystyrene instead of regular aggregates on its density and also adding silica fume and zeolite and its effectiveness on concrete strength were investigated in this paper. Three mix designs consisting of zeolite, silica fume, and polystyrene on cubic, cylinder compressive specimen, and flexural beam specimens were cast and tested. The test results indicated that the mix design with 20% zeolite and 5% silica fume gave concrete with a special density equal 1756 kilogram per cubic meter and cylinder compressive strength equal 27 MPa, indicating one special structural high-strenght lightweight concrete. In addition, the complete structural design results showed that the total costs of building cast with structural lightweight concrete (concrete, steel bars, and casting cost) was almost 40% less than of regular reinforced concrete building.