Behaviour of fibre composite sandwich panels under uniformly distributed loading

Abstract

Sandwich composites are widely used in various industries such as aeronautical, mechanical, automotive, marine and others. However, most of the existing sandwiches are not suitable and cost effective for applications in civil infrastructure. An innovative fibre composite sandwich panel made of glass fibre rein-forced polymer skins and a modified phenolic core material was developed for building and other structural applications. The behaviour of this new generation sandwich panel was studied to assist the technical persons and the construction crews in better understanding its properties for an efficient use in flooring applications under different loading conditions. If a fibre composite sandwich panel is placed not in the main fibre direction, an adverse effect on its performance may occur. This paper discusses an experimental investigation on this innovative sandwich for its one and two-way spanning floor applications under uniformly distributed loading. The experimental result showed that the stiffness of the sandwich is affected by the fibre orientation of the sandwich skins. Also, no major effect was observed for variation of fixity between slab and joist.