Mechanical and thermal insulate behaviors of pultruded GFRP truss-core sandwich panels filled with EPS mortar

Pultruded sandwich panel (PSP) usually has light weight, but its flexural performance is limited by the weak shear strength. Filling into expanded polystyrene (EPS) mortar can effectively improve the mechanical properties. The bending performance and failure mode of the EPS mortar-filled PSP were investigated by flexural testing. The ultimate bearing capacity improved from 49.562 kN for unfilled PSP to 72.065 kN for EPS mortar-filled PSP. The equivalent shear modulus is increased from 140.068 to 354.685 MPa. Increasing the EPS mortar's density, the failure of EPS mortar-filled PSP would change from core shear failure, local indentation failure to overall shear failure. According to the thermal insulation tests, which shows EPS mortar-filled PSPs have excellent thermal insulation, the thermal insulation performance of different types of filler PSPs are obtained. The research on the mechanical and thermal insulation properties of EPS mortar-filled PSP can provide technical support for its application in engineering.

Automated summary

Filling expanded polystyrene (EPS) mortar can effectively improve the mechanical properties of pultruded sandwich panel (PSP), leading to higher ultimate bearing capacity and increased equivalent shear modulus. As the density of EPS mortar increases, the failure mode of EPS mortar-filled PSP changes accordingly.