Abstract
The continued interest in technological innovation in construction has greatly broadened the horizons of material science, developing a specific sector closely related to the recycling of waste products. This paper examines the thermal, mechanical and structural behaviour of an insulating light weight fibre reinforced concrete (ILWFRC), which is made by replacing natural sand and gravel with artificial aggregates resulting from the process of glass recycling. ILWFRC offers low density (approximately 650 kg/m3), excellent thermal characteristics (thermal conductivity 0.1 W/mK), a compressive strength similar to brick masonry (3.5 MPa) with low cement content (265 kg/m3) and stable post-cracking behaviour. The mechanical and physical properties of ILWFRC were employed for the construction of a full-scale infill wall (having dimensions of 2.9 × 2.6 × 0.2 m), which was experimentally studied under in-plane and out-of-plane actions. In-plane response showed a maximum lateral load of 359 kN at 1.5% drift, with a residual capacity of more than 75% at 4% drift. The subsequent out-of-plane test was performed up to failure with a maximum lateral load of 67 kN, corresponding to about 7 times the infill self-weight.
Highlights
Infill walls are usually considered non-structural elements in design practice and their interaction with the structure is often neglected by designers [4]
In Eurocode 8 [5], the inter-story drift of reinforced concrete (RC) framed structures can be limited in such way to avoid the risk of collapse of infill walls and excessive damage at the Serviceability Limit State
Based on the experimental results presented concerning the seismic behaviour of an infill wall made of insulating light weight fibre reinforced concrete (ILWFRC), the following conclusions can be drawn: 1. Thermal characteristics of ILWFRC ensure energy performance meeting the requirements of current standards for high quality buildings
Summary
Infill walls are usually considered non-structural elements in design practice and their interaction with the structure is often neglected by designers [4]. Their role in the seismic response is not negligible and design standards typically suggest to indirectly control their response by limiting the bare structure drift demand. Infill can experience extensive damage, resulting in a reduction of the load-bearing capacity for inplane actions, or a loss of stability for out-of-plane actions [6, 7]. At a drift of 0.5%, the out-of-plane strength can be reduced by 74%
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