TRC precast Façade sandwich panel for energy retrofitting of existing buildings

As residential and commercial buildings are responsible of a large energy consumption, especially for heating, Standards introduce limits to guarantee energy saving in new buildings; however, existing buildings need to be retrofitted for energy saving, given the large impact they have on the phenomenon. Under this perspective, in the framework of a European project, a multilayer prefabricated façade panel is proposed. It is characterized by an internal EPS layer, 100 mm[3.94 in] thick, and by two external layers made of textile reinforced concrete (TRC). 12 mm[0.47 in] thick. The insulating material is used to transfer the shear between the external TRC layers. The maximum size of the panel is 1.50 × 3.30 m2[60 × 130 in.2]; the panel height is properly chosen in order to fasten it to the frame concrete beams through four connectors placed near to the corners. In this paper the design of the panel and the results of tests performed on full scale panels are shown. The panels were fastened to the corners through suitable anchors and were loaded by means of a distributed load (considering wind pressure and suction as the main load acting on the panel).