Experimental Testing of EPS-foam

Abstract: The aim of this master thesis was to investigate the mechanical properties of ExpandedPolystyrene (EPS) through experimental testing. The strain was measured on thespecimen’s surface with Digital Image Correlation (DIC), in order to investigate howthe first principal strain at fracture initiation depends on the loading of the material.To impose different loading conditions various tests were performed, such as biaxialtension-compression, uniaxial tension and bending tests. The study was done withfour densities of EPS, 35, 50, 75 and 100 g/L. To investigate how strain and stressat fracture initiation depend on temperature, the bending tests were performed atthree different temperatures, -20, 20 and 50 °C. All tests were performed in the SolidMechanics lab at KTH, Stockholm. For every experiment, five repetitions were madeto reduce the influence of the inhomogeneous microstructure of EPS and the stochasticbehaviour of fracture mechanics. The results indicate that the fracture initiation straindecreases with increasing density of EPS, while the fracture strength increases withincreasing density of EPS. Further, the results indicate that the loading conditions havean influence on the fracture initiation strain.