Role of EPS Geofoams in Reducing Thermal Losses from Slab-on-Grade Foundations under Freezing Conditions
Publication: Geo-Congress 2024
ABSTRACT
Enhancing energy efficiency for attaining net-zero homes is a crucial subject that is of great interest for advancing sustainability and addressing the issue of climate change. Almost 43% of the annual energy bill of a typical US household is known to be accounted for by heating and cooling expenses. While there have been significant works on insulating the superstructure of a home, limited research work has been performed on insulating the foundations and substructures. A research study was designed and performed to examine the role and efficacy of expanded polystyrene (EPS) geofoam in insulating a slab-on-grade foundation system, a common type of shallow foundation where the concrete slab rests directly on the ground below it. Small-scale laboratory tests were conducted on a soil box with an insulated superstructure above a slab-on-grade foundation prototype. The performance of different thicknesses and installation configurations of geofoam insulations was compared to a control section with insulated superstructure and bare slab. The tests were performed inside a temperature-controlled environmental chamber set at −18°C. Thermocouple probes were used to monitor temperature profiles within the test setup. The insulated test sections were found to have consistently warmer slab temperatures compared to the bare slab conditions, and significant variation in performance was observed between the tested configurations. The configuration with insulation around the slab perimeter showed the best performance with over 10°C warmer indoor temperatures observed compared to the control section. The test results clearly indicated that the application of geofoam has significant potential in reducing the heat transfer between the foundation and the soil/air interfaces and therefore could lower the energy losses from residential homes.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Geo-Congress 2024
Pages: 664 - 673
History
Published online: Feb 22, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Architectural engineering
- Building insulation
- Building systems
- Concrete pavements
- Engineering fundamentals
- Foundation design
- Foundations
- Geomaterials
- Geotechnical engineering
- Infrastructure
- Measurement (by type)
- Pavements
- Shallow foundations
- Slabs
- Structural engineering
- Structural members
- Structural systems
- Structures (by type)
- Superstructures
- Temperature effects
- Temperature measurement
- Transportation engineering
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