Loading Behavior of Sandwich Wall Infill with Opening: An Experimental Study

A new construction element is currently being developed as an innovative building solution. This element is a single prefabricated unit structured as follows: It has an outer layer made of reinforced concrete, a middle layer consisting of insulation material, and an inner layer made of another sheet of reinforced concrete. Sandwich wall panels can serve both functions of insulating the building thermally and transferring load when they are erected between each other. For this experiment, specimens of sizes 1m x 1m and 0.1m overall thickness are being cast with varying EPS core thicknesses of 25mm, 50mm, and 75mm tested under an even vertical load distribution. These specimens are being bonded by reinforcement, with an opening in the middle measuring 0.15m x 0.15m. A wall is being evaluated to determine how structurally sound it is in comparison to a standard wall system in various structural parameter aspects. The wall specimen can support a failure load of 406 kN, i.e., 95% of the maximum load that a typical wall specimen can support. Additionally, it has a less thick core region of 25 mm and a very little 0.21 mm deflection on the forward-facing side of the panel. The failure deformation measurements indicate that concrete reaches its limit at 0.002350, while steel fails at 0.001190. The current study's findings suggest that insulated structural panels with openings are preferable to conventional walls. To create an efficient infrastructure for balanced and sustainable industrialization and nurture inventiveness, the adoption of this new technology is considered.