Shear effects on bending behaviour of CFRP floor panels

This article analytically and experimentally investigated the shear effects on the deflection of a carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) based building floor panel. The proposed CFRP floor panel was developed by same authors, which is a pultruded CFRP beam with an open cross-section and multi cells consisted of thin-walled plates. It aims to develop green buildings for saving energy and reducing CO2 emission in low carbon constructional industry. This article presents the investigation of shear effects on the deflection of the pultruded beam with an open cross-section and two cells consisted of thin-walled plates. Investigation includes analytical and experimental work. The formulations to calculate the shear effects on the deflection of the CFPR floor panel in two different loading cases were conducted analytically, and were validated by experimental work of scaled floor panels. Investigation found that the shear effect of proposed CFRP floor panel on the deflection is significant, and important when carrying out deflection check in designing the buildings with CFRP floor panels. A cross-sectional form factor regarding shear effects on the deflection and load-deflection correction factors were produced for further researches in the society of composite thin-walled structures and practical applications in the CFRP related constructional industry. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.