Behavior of expanded polystyrene as lightweight filler in retaining walls with intermediate slabs

Abstract The present study explores a retaining wall with an intermediate slab. To reduce the lateral earth pressure on the wall, the substitution of part of the soil by blocks of expanded polystyrene (EPS) with high density is proposed, which could result in significant economic savings. Also, the possibility of building the wall elevation with smaller thickness (preexisting wall reinforcement) will be analyzed. To do this, the situation and optimum geometry of the EPS blocks will be studied in detail, besides a study of two scaled models, one without EPS and another with blocks with rectangular distribution. The obtained results allow us to affirm that the reduction in pressure is very significant if the blocks are arranged with the proper geometry and situation over the sliding plane but without eliminating the beneficial effect of the weight of the ground located over the slab.