Excessive settlement and foundation instability are some of the main problems commonly encountered in fills and embankment structures built on a soft soil of low bearing capacity.The Expanded Polystyrene(EPS)replacement method, by partially or fully replacing the conventional fill material with extremely lightweight EPS geofoam, may solve these problems. In this thesis, experimental and theoretical work have been carried out to investigate the behaviour of EPS under various loading conditions in geotechnical applications and the effectiveness of EPS replacement technique has been studied using numerical models.Several tests were performed for this study and the results of these tests are given / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 2001. / A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Civic Engineering and Environment, University of Western Sydney, Nepean, January, 2001. Bibliography : p. 215-225.