Experimental study on flexural and shear behaviour of sandwich panels using glass textile reinforced concrete and autoclaved aerated concrete

Abstract

Textile-reinforced concrete (TRC) is a new composite material made of high-strength textiles embedded within fine grained concrete (FGC). The application of TRC leads to the design of thin and slender structures or for repairing and strengthening of existing structural members. Autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) is an ultra-lightweight concrete, which can be combined with high strength TRC to form some kinds of precast curtain panels in construction. The concept of the TRC-AAC panel is based on the theory of sandwich construction with strong and stiff skins, like TRC layers, bonded to a lightweight AAC core. The resulting hybrid TRC-AAC panel can be used as structural or non-structural member for the housing construction. In this paper, the flexural and shear performance of hybrid TRC-AAC sandwich panels is presented by means of experimental results. The sandwich panels use three layers of different materials: TRC for the tensile layer, AAC for the core material and FGC for the compressive layer. Three different types of glass textile were used as reinforcements in the TRC layers.