Experimental and numerical studies on the behaviour of concrete sandwich panels

Precast concrete panels are often used for the façades of modern warehouses and commercial malls. During the last two decades, they have generally been made of two concrete layers with interposed thermal insulating polystyrene boards. Traditionally, perimeter concrete ribs allow the weight of the external concrete layer to be transferred to the internal thus causing unavoidable thermal bridges which reduce the energy performance of the building. In the sandwich cladding panel, the two concrete layers can be linked by low- conductivity shear connectors crossing through the insulation layer, thus ensuring the overall thermal efficiency of the building. In this paper, the results of a wide numerical study on the behaviour of concrete sandwich panels realized with glass fibre-composite pultruded connectors are presented, focusing on the stresses and deformations caused by dead load, thermal actions and shrinkage.