Flexural Experiment and Design Method of Steel-Wire-Enhanced Insulation Panels

A new type of non-dismantling composite insulation panel, namely a steel-wire-enhanced insulation panel, was proposed. Compared to traditional organic insulation panels, the construction procedure is reduced, and the fire resistance is improved. The flexural performance was explored experimentally and numerically to evaluate its ability to withstand lateral pressure when it was used as the formwork of a cast-in-place concrete wall. First, 6 groups of 12 specimens of steel-wire-enhanced insulation panels were conducted under 2 loading modes: 3-point bending loading and 4-point bending loading. The failure modes of these specimens included a straight crack at the bottom of the panel and the yielding of steel wire. The test results showed that the maximum bending moment of the specimens with an 80 mm thickness could reach 2.415 kN·m. Second, finite element (FE) models were developed for the steel-wire-enhanced insulation panels by ABAQUS, which were validated by the experimental results. Third, a parametric study with parameters, including the thermal insulation cover, the square gird spacing of the steel wire mesh, and the diameter of the steel wire, was performed. It was observed that the insulation cover had a significant effect on the flexural capacity in the simulated range. Finally, theoretical formulas for panel stiffness and flexural capacity were presented, which can predict the bending performance more conservatively compared to the experimental results. The research and analysis of this study could offer a valuable reference for designing this panel in practical applications.

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