Reactive powder concrete sandwich panels with mechanical connection approach

One-way reactive powder concrete slab panels including one solid panel with dimensions (980x420x80) mm and three sandwich panels with dimensions (980x420x110) were cast and tested. A mechanical technique has been used to connect the sandwich panels. Three variables are investigated in this study: type of slab (solid and sandwich), number, and layout of serrated steel connectors (11, 12, and 21). The slab panels were tested under two-point load as simply supported. A nonlinear finite element analysis has been carried out to analyze all experimentally tested slabs and to verify the results. The analysis is performed by using finite element software ABAQUS (Version 6.14). The experimental results showed that the deflection decreases and the load capacity increases for sandwich panels compared to the solid slab. The deflection increases and the load capacity decrease for sandwich panels with 12 connectors in comparison with the sandwich panel with 11 connectors. The study showed that the structural behavior improved by using sandwich panels instead of solid panels with the same volume of concrete and the layout of serrated connectors plays an important role in carrying load capacity and decreasing the deflection. A good agreement has been obtained between the experimental and numerical results.