Mechanical behaviour of composite sandwich panels with foamed concrete core reinforced with natural fibre in four-point bending

FLORES-JOHNSON, E.A.; CARRILLO, J.G.; LI, Q.M.; VALADEZ-GONZALEZ, A.; GONZALEZ-CHI, P.I.; CASTILLO-LARA, J.F.; HERRERA-FRANCO, P.J.; AGALIOTIS, E.

THIN-WALLED STRUCTURES

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Año: 2021 vol. 169

0263-8231

The four-point bending behaviour of composite sandwich panels made of corrugated steel faces and foamedconcrete (FC) cores with a density of 700 kg/m3is reported. Plain FC (PFC) core and fibre-reinforced FC (FRFC)core, reinforced with an alkaline-treated natural fibre (henequen fibre) at a volume fraction of 1%, were used.FRFC core reinforced with polypropylene fibre was also used as a reference. The results showed that panelswith FRFC cores exhibited greater initial failure load, maximum load and energy absorption when comparedto the PFC cored panels, which was associated with the enhancements of ductility and toughness of the FRFCcores produced by the fibres. Several energy absorbing mechanisms were observed in the panels, including thedevelopment of major tension and shear cracks in the FC core, face wrinkling and face?core debonding. Thefinite element simulations showed that the face?core bonding plays a crucial role in the structural performanceof the panels. The findings presented herein encourage further investigations to assess the use of sandwichpanels with natural-fibre reinforced cores for construction applications.