Numerical modelling of textile reinforced concrete sandwich panels

The paper is aimed at predicting the behavior of lightweight textile reinforced concrete (TRC) sandwich panels tested in bending. Panels are characterized by thin external TRC layers cast on an expanded polystyrene (EPS) layer used as thermal insulation (12 + 100 + 12 mm). Each panel is 3.03 m long and 1.5 m wide. Displacement controlled tests up to failure have been performed on two full-scale panels and the experimental results are used as a benchmark for the analysis shown in this paper. A 3D non-linear finite element model built in Abaqus is proposed. The model includes both material and geometry non-linearity. The numerical analysis performed on full-scale panel allows to predict the specimen global response and to investigate the failure modes that involve the sandwich solution.