The Shear Behavior of Precast Concrete Sandwich Panels with W-shaped SGFRP Shear Connectors

Abstract

This paper presents a horizontal direct shear push-out test program to evaluate the shear behavior of Precast Concrete Sandwich Panel (PCSP) systems with W-shaped Steel Glass Fiber-reinforced Polymer (SGFRP) shear connectors. The experimental program is composed of twelve PCSPs reinforced with W-shaped SGFRP connectors and six PCSPs for comparison that were panels using pure W-shaped GFRP connectors, GFRP pin connectors and stainless-steel truss connectors. The peak shear load, the relationships of shear force-average relative slip, the shear performance of each connector, and the effects of different height, angle and diameter of the SGFRP connector were investigated in this paper. The test results indicate that all specimens with the W-shaped SGFRP shear connectors in this study exhibited an elastic-brittle response caused by pull-out of certain connectors before the ultimate strength was utilized fully and the ductility of the SGFRP material did not play out. Nevertheless, the shear capacity of panels with SGFRP connectors was approximately 2 times that with pure W-shaped GFRP connectors in the case of all parameters being the same, approximately 2 times that with stainless-steel truss connectors for which diameter was reduced by a half, and approximately 2.5 times that with GFRP pin connectors. A reasonable design of connector diameter, spacing and measure of strengthened anchorage is required to ensure the ductile failure of panels.