Flexural behaviors and local failure analyses of EPS foam-filled GFRC truss-core sandwich panels

Filled with Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foamed concrete, pultruded sandwich panels (PSPs) become stiffer and stronger. The filling transforms the failure of the PSP from core shear failure to mono-cell skin fracture, and the flexural load capacity which are increased by 87.73 %, 217.74 %, 295.02 %, and 683.58 % respectively with different packing density can be greatly improved. To reveal the foam-filling effect, theoretical analyses were performed to predict the rigidity, the peak load, and the failure style of the foam-filled PSPs through introducing mono-cell deformation analysis based on the elastoplastic foundation beam theory. The factors affecting the failure pattern and flexural load capacity were discussed.

Automated summary

By filling Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foamed concrete, pultruded sandwich panels (PSPs) become stiffer and stronger, changing the failure mode and significantly improving the flexural load capacity. Theoretical analyses predict the performance of foam-filled PSPs, while factors affecting their failure pattern and flexural load capacity are discussed.