Experimental Investigation and Analytical Modeling of Prefabricated Reinforced Concrete Sandwich Panels

The behavior of prefabricated reinforced concrete sandwich panels (RCSPs) was investigated experimentally and analytically in this study. Initially, tests were carried out on single full-scale RCSPs with or without openings, reproducing the behavior of lateral resisting cantilever and fixed-end walls. The performance and failure mode of all panels tested revealed coupling between the flexure and shear response. However due to their well-detailed reinforcement, all panels exhibited a relatively gradual strength and stiffness degradation and did not suffer from sudden shear failure. Then, an analytical column model was developed for the analysis of the walls’ nonlinear response under cyclic loading. The model consists of an elastic bar with nonlinear flexural and shear springs concentrated at the column ends. It was concluded that this simple model represents very satisfactory effects of flexural and shear forces in the global response of the walls. The agreement of the proposed model with experimental response characteristics was quite good when the proper constitutive law were used.JRC.G.5-European laboratory for structural assessmen