Experimental and numerical evaluation of mechanical behaviour of composite structural insulated wall panels under edgewise compression

A composite structural insulated sandwich panel (CSIP) is a quite novel approach to the idea of sandwich structures. A series of natural-scale experimental test is required each time a change in panel’s geometry is planned and a reliable computational tool is required to precede actual laboratory testing with virtual simulations. An attempt of creating such a tool has been made with use of a commercial FEM code ABAQUS, in order to predict behaviour of a specific kind of CSIPs with magnesium-oxide board facings and expanded polystyrene core. Results obtained from simulations taking into account geometrical nonlinearity as well as material nonlinearity of both core and facing materials are presented and compared with experimental data from natural-scale edgewise compression tests of wall CSIPs.