Analytical and numerical studies of polymer matrix composite sandwich infill panels

This paper presents analytical and numerical evaluations of polymer matrix composite (PMC) infill wall systems, one of which was introduced by the authors [J. Struct. Eng. ASCE 129 (4) (2003) 440]. Used primarily as infill material for seismic retrofitting of steel frames, the basic PMC infill wall system consists of two fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) laminates surrounding an infill of vinyl sheet foamcore. This paper addresses two issues crucial to an understanding of PMC infill wall systems: (1) a simplified method for predicting the maximum strength and critical design parameters essential for assessing the performance of a PMC infill panel, and (2) two simple compressive sandwich strut models are studied, and the results of one of these is compared to experimental data. Results obtained from simplified analyses have shown strong correlation with experimental data. Numerical simulations and discussions pertaining to various design parameters of PMC infill systems in steel frame structures are also presented in this paper.