Temperature effects on concrete sandwich panels reinforced with glass fibre reinforced polymers (GFRP)

The thermo-mechanical behaviour of sandwich panels was experimentally investigated. The panels had two external concrete layers reinforced with GFRP rebars and an internal expanded polystyrene insulation layer. These are typical for low bearing panels in façade claddings. The heating condition was adjusted, that the internal GFRP rebars in one concrete layer were exposed, for different times, to increasing temperature higher than the glass transition temperature of the resin. This allowed verifying the modification of the mechanical behaviour, in terms of deformability and loading carrying capacity, of the panels with pre- and post-heating bending tests. As main outcome, the elevated temperature effected significantly the insulation layer and provided considerable reduction of the initial global stiffness and of the load carrying capacity.