Flexural Creep Response of Hybrid GFRP-FRC Sandwich Panels

This work was developed within the scope of the research project Easyfloor-Development of composite sandwich panels for building floor rehabilitation, which aims at developing an innovative hybrid sandwich panel as an alternative construction system to conventional floor solutions, mainly for building rehabilitation. The developed hybrid sandwich panel is composed of a top face layer of steel-fibre-reinforced self-compacting concrete (FRC), a core of polyurethane (PUR) closed-cell foam, a bottom face sheet, and lateral webs of glass-fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP). Full-scale experimental tests on the developed sandwich panels were carried out to characterize their short- and long-term (creep) flexural behaviour. The present work includes a detailed description of the developed panels and the experimental programme carried out and presents and discusses the relevant results. The experimental results showed an almost linear behaviour up to failure. The creep tests were carried out for a period of 180 days, using a creep load equal to 20% of its ultimate loading capacity. An average creep coefficient of 0.27 was obtained for this period. The composed creep model used to simulate the sandwich panel's creep deflections by considering the individual viscoelastic contributions was able to predict the observed structural response with good accuracy.

Automated summary

This article presents the development of an innovative hybrid sandwich panel for building rehabilitation, along with experimental tests and results. The experimental results show that the flexural behavior of the sandwich panel is almost linear until failure. The creep tests, conducted for a period of 180 days, showed an average creep coefficient of 0.27, and the creep model used accurately predicts the observed structural response.