Buckling of steel fibre expanded polystyrene concrete wall panel

Abstract

Steel Fibre Expanded Polystyrene Concrete (SFEPS) wall panel is envisaged as load bearing walls, although it is lightweight by design. The performance of this wall is investigated, incorporating opening to fulfil the demand for ventilation and services conduits or equipments. It focused on the buckling behaviour by comparing the carrying load capacities and deformation profiles of wall panel with and without opening. Primarily, the samples were cast from concrete mixed with expanded polystyrene (EPS) beads, enhanced with hooked end round shaft steel fibre and reinforced with a single layer rectangular steel fabric (BRC) of size B9. The wall panel size is 2000 mm in height (limited due to testing frame allowable height), 1500 mm wide and 100 mm thick which gives the slenderness ratio of 15. The wall falls under the slender wall category for lightweight concrete since the slenderness ratio is greater than 10 [1]. A central opening with a size of 600 mm high by 600 mm wide is created to accommodate the opening criterion. Experimental tests were conducted simulating fixed ends condition. The average compressive strength of SFEPS, fcu is 20.87 N/mm2 with a density, ρ of 1900 kg/m3. These lightweight SFEPS wall panels sustained load between 958.0 kN and 1938.9 kN. Wall panels experienced maximum displacement of 22.3 mm at midheight. The wall panels failed in buckling as it should be for slender wall. There was also concrete crushing at the upper and lower ends of the panels. The SFEPS wall panel is suitable to be used as load bearing structures.