AN EXPERIMENTALLY VALIDATED MODELLING TECHNIQUE FOR THIN RC SANDWICH WALLS UNDER SEISMIC LOADINGS

The seismic performance assessment/simulation of a novel structural system composed of lightly reinforced concrete sandwich panels characterized by thin concrete layers reinforced by low diameter steel wire mesh of particularly reduced diameter is the subject of the paper. The construction system (which is obtained by spraying thin layers of shotcrete upon a prefabricated polystyrene support panel) has high thermal and structural performances as well as cheap construction cost, so that it caught the attention of several developing countries. The assessment/modelling of the cyclic non-linear behavior of such system is particularly challenging but fundamental in order to fully exploit its earthquake-resistant capacities. In the present work a modelling technique (which make use of a recently proposed concrete damage model) for such structural system is proposed and validated through experimental results in terms of both force-displacement response and damage progression.