BEHAVIOUR OF MINERAL WOOL SANDWICH PANELS UNDER BENDING LOAD AT ROOM AND ELEVATED TEMPERATURES

Ashkan Shoushtarian Mofrad,Hartmut Pasternak

doi:10.3846/est.2020.14046

Abstract

This paper presents a parametric study for the bending stiffness of mineral wool (MW) sandwich panels subjected to a bending load. The MW panels are commonly used as wall panels for industrial buildings. They provide excellent insulation in the case of fire. In this research, the performance of sandwich panels is investigated at both ambient and elevated temperatures. To reach that goal, a finite element (FE) model is developed to verify simulations with experimental results in normal conditions and fire case. The experimental investigation in the current paper is a part of STABFI project financed by Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS). The numerical study is conducted using ABAQUS software. Employing simulations for analysis and design is an alternative to costly tests. However, in order to rely on numerical results, simulations must be verified with the experimental results. In this paper, after the verification of FE results, a parametric study is conducted to observe the effects of the panel thickness, length and width, as well as the facing thickness on the bending stiffness of MW sandwich panels at normal conditions. The results indicate that the panel thickness has the most significant effect on the bending stiffness of sandwich panels.

Highlights

Sandwich panels are typically composites of two thin steel sheets and a core of higher thickness and lower density
The thicker steel sheets have a higher bending stiffness than thinner ones; in comparison to other parameters, such growth is not significant. This fact can be interpreted through the dependence of the bending stiffness on cross-section geometry of sandwich panels
The effect of facings thickness is slight compared to the whole sandwich panel section

Summary

Introduction

Sandwich panels are typically composites of two thin steel sheets and a core of higher thickness and lower density. Steel sheets of sandwich panels are usually designed to carry normal and flexural loads, while the core material is aimed to resist shear loads (Noor et al, 1996). They are commonly applied in industrial and commercial buildings to stabilize the entire structure. The bending stiffness and resistance of PIR sandwich panels at room and elevated temperatures were discussed in (Mofrad et al, 2019). Srivaro et al (Srivaro et al, 2015) studied the bending stiffness and strength of oil palm-

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Results

Conclusion