Numerical Study on Behaviors of EPS Geofoam Embankment on Soft Ground

In 1972, expanded polystyrene (EPS) geofoam was first utilized as a lightweight fill material for constructing roads in Oslo, Norway. The use of EPS geofoam in civil engineering has been applied widely for over four decades in various countries throughout the world. Especially, the EPS construction method was applied to reduce the deformation of soft ground for the highway embankment. In this study, numerical modeling of the EPS geofoam embankment using the Finite Element Method (FEM) through Plaxis 2D software was carried out. In the analyses, the hardening soil model (HS) was also used to model the grounds and EPS geofoam. Additionally, the interface elements were used to simulate the slippage between the blocks of EPS geofoam with two distinct densities, i.e., 0.2 and 0.35 kN/m3. The analyzed results indicated that EPS geofoam is an effective method to diminish the settlement influence of highway embankments on soft ground.