Abstract
The current report is devoted to the flexural analysis of a composite structural insulated panel (CSIP) with magnesium oxide board facings and expanded polystyrene (EPS) core, that was recently introduced to the building industry. An advanced nonlinear FE model was created in the ABAQUS environment, able to simulate the CSIP’s flexural behavior in great detail. An original custom code procedure was developed, which allowed to include material bimodularity to significantly improve the accuracy of computational results and failure mode predictions. Material model parameters describing the nonlinear range were identified in a joint analysis of laboratory tests and their numerical simulations performed on CSIP beams of three different lengths subjected to three- and four-point bending. The model was validated by confronting computational results with experimental results for natural scale panels; a good correlation between the two results proved that the proposed model could effectively support the CSIP design process.
Highlights
Sandwich structures are becoming increasingly popular in civil engineering applications, as their use allows for a reduction of dead weight, improvement of sustainability, and overall cost-efficiency [1,2,3]
Failure modes established in laboratory tests are compared with failure initiation regions recognized with the FE model and presented here in a form of distribution maps of a damage initiation criterion variable (DICV)
Force–displacement curves recorded in experimental tests on composite structural insulated panel (CSIP) samples are compared with the corresponding numerical outcomes
Summary
Sandwich structures are becoming increasingly popular in civil engineering applications, as their use allows for a reduction of dead weight, improvement of sustainability, and overall cost-efficiency [1,2,3]. Some notable examples of sandwich structure applications in civil engineering can be found in the housing industry [2, 4] and footbridges [5, 6]. The general idea of a sandwich structure is to combine two thin high-strength facings and a light structural core, to create a panel of considerable strength and stiffness [7, 8]. An essential advantage of the sandwich concept is its versatility. It can be tailored, through the use of different geometric proportions and various combinations of facing
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