Structural Behavior of Precast Lightweight Foam Concrete Sandwich Panel with Double Shear Truss Connectors under Flexural Load

This paper presents the structural behaviour of precast lightweight foam concrete sandwich panel (PFLP) under flexure, studied experimentally and theoretically. Four (4) full scale specimens with a double shear steel connector of 6 mm diameter and steel reinforcement of 9 mm diameter were cast and tested. The panel’s structural behavior was studied in the context of its ultimate flexure load, crack pattern, load-deflection profile, and efficiency of shear connectors. Results showed that the ultimate flexure load obtained from the experiment is influenced by the panel’s compressive strength and thickness. The crack pattern recorded in each panel showed the emergence of initial cracks at the midspan which later spread toward the left and right zones of the slab. The theoretical ultimate load for fully composite and noncomposite panels was obtained from the classical equations. All panel specimens were found to behave in a partially composite manner. Panels PLFP-3 and PLFP-4 with higher compressive strength and total thickness managed to obtain a higher degree of compositeness which is 30 and 32.6 percent, respectively.