Conception of sandwich structural panels comprising thin walled steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete (SFRSCC) and fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) connectors

Abstract

In this paper, an innovative thermally efficient sandwich structural panel is proposed for the structural walls of a pre-fabricated modular housing system. Traditionally, sandwich concrete panels consist of conventional reinforced concrete wythes as external layers, polystyrene foam as core material and steel connectors. However, steel connectors are known to cause thermal bridges on the building envelope and possibly condensation and mould problems. Furthermore, the possibilities for thickness reduction/optimization of conventionally reinforced concrete layers are frequently limited by minimum cover requirements. To overcome these issues, the proposed sandwich panel comprises Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) connectors and two thin layers of Steel Fibre Reinforced SelfCompacting Concrete (SFRSCC). This paper presents the basic conception of the proposed building system together with preliminary parametric numerical analyses to define the arrangement and geometry of the elements that constitute the sandwich panels. Finally, the feasibility of using the proposed connector and SFRSCC on the external wythes is experimentally investigated through a series of pull-out tests where failure modes and load capacity of the connections are analysed.