Experimental investigation of innovative composite folded thin cylindrical concrete shell structures

Abstract

This paper proposed an innovative composite folded thin shell structure consisting of concrete, expanded polystyrene foam (EPS), and glass-fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) to improve the mechanical performance of the traditional concrete thin shell structure. This light weight structure was investigated through a scaled model test to characterize the load bearing behavior. For comparison the corresponding concrete thin shell and the concrete folded shell were also undergone loading tests. The results demonstrate that the bearing capacity of the composite folded thin shell is 4.876 times that of the concrete thin shell and 1.219 time that of the concrete folded shell respectively. The typical failure mode of composite folded thin shells is the crush of the top concrete layer at the mid-span. The presence of the bottom GFRP face sheet and the EPS core can effectively slow down the appearance of initial cracks in the concrete layer. The destruction of the composite folded thin shell shows a good ductility characteristic when compared with other two shells.