Concrete is a material that is commonly used in building structures. Most of the current buildings use concrete as their main component with some switching to steel-framed structures over the recent years. The advantages of concrete are cheap (relative to other methods), high comprehensive strength, corrosion resistance, and fire resistance.  

Due to its properties, it has a high density which influences the dead loads (These are the permanent, static weight of a structure or its fixed components i.e., walls, floor, roof, beams, etc.) on structures. 

Concrete is a building material created by the mixing of coarse aggregate (gravel), fine aggregate (sand), portland cement, and water, which is as hard as a rock.

This type of building material is called concrete with a normal weight range of 2400 kg/m3, a relatively heavy weight for buildings with concrete structures. To reduce the dead weight of a structure using concrete 

materials much have been done, including the use of alternative building materials in the form of lightweight concrete (Tjokrodimuljo, 2007). 

Given the weight of concrete and its brick companions are significantly high, in a tall building if an earth were to occur each of these masses would be forced to move. Thus, the higher the building the greater the mass movements. That’s why there are numerous inventions to counter these effects.  

A recent paper written by Andi Prasetiyo Wibowo from the University of Atma Jaya Yogyakarta, Indonesia, reveals the use of Styrofoam waste as a replacement for coarse aggregate in lightweight concrete.

The idea is to manufacture wall panels made of Styrofoam and then increase the flexural strength by providing a layer of 3mm wire mesh and cement paste /plaster on the outside. 

The Styrofoam is wrapped in between the wire mesh then a cement paste is sprayed on the Styrofoam forming a sandwich with the Styrofoam in the middle. More details can be seen in the image below. 

After a few tests, Andi concluded that Styrofoam could be included in the category of lightweight concrete since its weight was below 1800kg/m3. To see the full publication, click here. 

In Tanzania, some of the contractors have adopted the use of these Styrofoam walls as they reduce dead loads and are cost-effective (cost reduction of about 25%) to both concrete structures and steel-framed structures.