Flexural Behavior of Concrete Sandwich Panels Under Punching Load and Four-Point Bending—Experimental and Analytical Study

Abstract

Concrete sandwich structural panels can serve dual purposes of transferring load and insulating. This paper presents and discusses results of experimental and numerical studies carried out to understand the flexural behavior of concrete sandwich panels under different flexural loading conditions such as four-point bending and punching load. The experimental study consisted of testing two prototype concrete sandwich panels. Wythes of the panels were reinforced using wire mesh and rebars, and shear connectors were used to connect both wythes. Experimental study indicated that flexural behavior of these panels is significantly affected by type of the loading conditions. Though constructional details of both panels tested in this study are same, failure mode of the panels are different under four-point bending and punching load. The panel tested under four-point bending failed by forming inclined shear cracks and the panel tested under punching load failed by forming flexural cracks. Numerical analysis was carried out using finite element package ABAQUS. Numerical models developed are able to approximately predict load-deflection responses of concrete sandwich panels under different loading conditions. Further experimental and numerical studies are required in this area toward developing design guidelines.