of precast concrete sandwich wall panels with basalt FRP and steel reinforcement

A single-story precast concrete insulated sandwich wall panel design was tested in flexure. Testing parameters included shear-connector and flexural-reinforcement material type, namely steel and basalt-fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP). BFRP connectors have the advantage of lower thermal bridging than conventional metallic connectors. Some walls were tested without facade wythes to quantify the additional capacity contributed by the facade through partial composite action. Steelreinforced walls showed a strength-based composite action exceeding 90% with steel connectors and 75% with BFRP connectors. Alternatively, BFRP-reinforced walls with BFRP connectors showed only 51% composite action. When evaluating composite action by deflection, rather than load, the walls had substantially lower values, ranging from 3% to 6.9%. BFRP-reinforced panels had lower strength than the steel-reinforced panels because they were prone to shear-compression failure but had higher deflections at ultimate. Shear deformation between wythes increased deformability, with the highest value observed in a panel with BFRP connectors and steel flexural reinforcement. Digital image correlation was used to determine wythes’ relative slip and rotations at the panel ends. The wall design performed adequately as a non-load-bearing wall based on building-code requirements for maximum wind pressure.