Flexural performance of sandwich panels utilizing high strength concrete, foam concrete and alkali-resistant glass fabric FRCM system

Abstract

A new type of building sandwich panel was designed, fabricated, and tested. The sandwich panel used high strength concrete (HSC) for thin outer/inner sheets and foam concrete (FC) for the core insulation material, while both HSC sheets and the FC core were interconnected using alkali-resistant glass fabric (ARGF). The sandwich panel was designed using truss model. ARGF served two different purposes of (1) shear reinforcement and (2) flexural reinforcement. A total of seven sandwich panels were fabricated and tested under 3-point and 4-point flexural test. During the flexural test, the FC core first underwent gradual damage in the compression strut followed by development of multiple flexural cracks in the thin HSC sheet in or close to the constant moment zone under 4-point flexural test. As a result, the flexural test results of the sandwich panel showed pseudo-ductile behavior.