EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON FLEXURAL BEHAVIOR OF PRECAST CONCRETE SANDWICH FACADE PANELS WITH BFRP CONNECTORS

Precast concrete sandwich facade panels with BFRP connectors are a kind of non-load bearing facade panels, which are attached to main structures with linear braces on top and point braces at the bottom. BFRP connectors are arranged obliquely. In order to assess the structural behavior of the facade panel subjected to wind and seismic loads, a pseudo-static test of five full-scale facade panels was carried out to investigate their out of plane flexural behavior.The test is based on an engineering project in Hefei. The test results show that the number of linear braces and their interval have a significant impact on the flexural behavior. A recommended interval is proposed. If the facade panel have a rational arrangement of point braces, it will have better load-bearing capacity, ductility and crack resistance. Facade panels with structural openings for doors and windows exhibits cracks in the corners of the structural openings. The cracking load of this kind of panels is much smaller than that of panels without structural openings.