Flexural performance of innovative hybrid sandwich panels with special focus on the shear connection behavior

The present study intends to evaluate the flexural performance of hybrid sandwich panels through the execution of four point bending tests. The proposed hybrid sandwich panel uses Deflection Hardening Cementitious Composites (DHCC) on the top layer, a GFRP bottom layer and perforated shear connectors in the GFRP ribs to transfer shear stresses between top and bottom layers. The tested hybrid slabs use two types of shear connectors, which include indented and perforated shapes. The tests were performed to study the behaviour of a novel shear connection between the GFRP ribs and the DHCC layer that is here proposed. A comparison on the obtained experimental results was executed to clarify the influence of the shear connectors’ geometries on the flexural performance of the developed hybrid slabs. The results show that the shear connection mechanical behaviour strongly influences the peak load, the deflection at peak load, the post-peak load carrying capacity and the degree of composite action of the hybrid slabs.The study presented in this paper is a part of the research project "RehabGFRP - Rehabilitation of Building Floors with Lightweight High Performance GFRP Sandwich Panels", with reference number of PTDC/ECM/113041/2009. Furthermore, the authors honestly appreciate the collaboration of the following labs: Civitest for developing DHCC materials (Eng. Delfina Goncalves), PIEP for conducting VARTM process (Eng. Luis Oliveira) and Department of Civil Engineering of Minho University to perform the tests (Mr. Antonio Matos and Eng. Marco Jorge).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio