Cyclic behaviour of expanded polystyrene (Eps) sandwich concrete walls

Abstract

Precast concrete walls become increasingly utilized due the rapid needs of inexpensive fabricated house especially as traditional construction cost continue to climb. Moreover, particularly at damaged area due to natural disaster when the requirement of a lot of fast-constructed and cost-efficient houses are paramount. However, the performance of precast walls under lateral load such as earthquake or strong wind is still not comprehensively understood due to various type of reinforcements and connections. Additionally, the massive and solid wall elements also increase the total weight of building and hence increase the earthquake base shear force significantly. Therefore, the precast polystyrene reinforced concrete walls which offers light weight and easy instalment became the focus of this investigation. The experimental test on two RC wall specimens using EPS (Expanded Polystyrene) panel and wire mesh reinforcement have been conducted. Quasi-static load in the form of displacement controlled cyclic tests were undertaken until reaching failure. At each discrete loading step, lateral load-deflection behavior, crack propagation and collapse mechanism were measured which then were compared with theoretical analysis. The findings showed that precast polystyrene reinforced concrete walls gave sufficient seismic performance reaching up to 1% drift at failure point against lateral.