DEVELOPMENT OF LIGHTWEIGHT CONCRETE INFILLED SANDWICH WALL PANEL

Masonry structures are popularly used in the construction for the several thousand years. The masonry walls have showed inferior performance during any uncertain loads. Lightweight wall panels are the better alternative for the masonry structures. Lightweight concrete is developed by mixing the 3 mm diameter EPS (Expanded Polystyrene) beads and a flowable concrete. The sandwich wall panel is developed using the lightweight concrete with a density of about 920 kg/m3. Cubes and cylinders are tested and developed a material model for the lightweight concrete. A wall panel of size 1.25 m * 1.25 m * 150 mm is cast with a lightweight concrete inner core and tested for in-plane compression loading. A nonlinear finite element analysis is carried out with material nonlinearities and compared with experimental results. The results are found comparable and it confirms the material model developed. The present study showed that the lightweight concrete sandwiched with ferrocement skin is well suitable for the wall construction.