Proceedings of International Conference on Engineering and Science for Research and Development

(ICESReD) 2016, October25-26, 2016, Banda Aceh, Indonesia

Evaluation on the Characteristics of Used Expanded Polystyrene (EPS)

Subjected to a Compressive Load: A Preliminary Study to Determine
Feasibility of Re-Utilizing Their Waste
M. Nizar Machmud,*

Division of Alternative Materials for Components and Structures, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, University of Syiah Kuala, Darussalam, Banda Aceh 23111, INDONESIA
*corresponding author: mnizar.machmud@unsyiah.ac.id

Abstract
Not only popular as packaging materials, expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam has also
widely been a material used for structural as well as non-structural applications.
However, due to hardly biodegradable and very costly to be recycled, the used EPS
foams, nowadays, are easily found around us and without well-treated, their waste are
gradually affecting our future life and leading then to a set of very complex
environmental problems. Such unexpected problems, therefore, should be early
controlled to postpone their waste impact on our environment and re-utilizing the used
materials for similar applications is one of feasible methods proposed later to do the
task. Evaluation on their characteristics under a similar loading, therefore, has to be
firstly performed. A compression testing performed at room temperature, according to
ASTM D 1621-00, was conducted to evaluate characteristics of the used EPS foams
which were previously applied as electronics packaging materials. The testing results
pointed out that there were no significant loses found in their characteristics. Such
characteristics as presented in this paper revealed that the EPS foams only deformed
elastically in their last applications and the testing results indicated that the used EPS
foams might be therefore still definitely re-useable for the similar application and reutilizing the used EPS foams in the packaging application would be gradually helping
to reduce their waste.
Keywords: Used EPS Foam, Close-cell, Compression

Introduction
Expanded polystyrene (EPS) foams have been used for a variety of applications
such as insulated panel systems for facades, walls, roofs and floors in buildings, as
flotation material in the construction of marinas and pontoons and as a lightweight
fill in road and railway construction due to their outstanding features such as durable,
strong and lightweight as well.
Methods
The foam used was an expanded polystyrene (EPS) having a density of 32 kg/m3.
The compression deformation behavior for the polystyrene foam is given in Fig. 3.
This compression test was carried out in accordance to ASTM 1621-91. Different
stress states are marked as O, A, B and C in this figure. The region OA represents the
linear response of the foam. The region AB corresponds to a near-plateau stress
region. In this region, the cell structure within the foam loses stability and starts to
compact drastically with little respond to the applied force, hence giving rise to a
near-plateau like region. Once the cells are completely flatten, the densification
region starts where the force rises quickly with little deformation as designated by
region BC. This was found to occur at about 80% strain as shown in Fig. 3.

Proceedings of International Conference on Engineering and Science for Research and Development
(ICESReD) 2016, October25-26, 2016, Banda Aceh, Indonesia

Results and Discussion

Conclusions
Acknowledgements
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