These parameters were also shown to critically affect failure mode, where a transition from a connector's material or pull-out failure to a flexural failure of the reinforced concrete wythe occurs.
The effect of the O-connector profile, steel material and welding process for attaching the O-connectors was investigated and two different failure mechanisms were identified.
The FEM considers complex geometric nonlinearities of hundreds of stud connectors in the structure, complex interaction between the connectors and concrete, and material nonlinearities of steel and concrete used in the structure.
For each set of experiment, standard tests were carried out on concrete, steel and shear connectors to determine their material properties.
Traditionally, sandwich concrete panels consist of reinforced concrete wythes as outer layers, polystyrene foam as core material and steel connectors.
The system is comprised of two modified UEAs, a custom ASIC, SMD capacitors, a Neu- roport™ (Blackrock Microsystems) percutaneous connector, 44 wires, and encapsulation materials.
To mobilise the material strength, shear connectors including overlapped headed studs and J J hooks were introduced for the double skin structure.
The design parameters included the number, size, distribution and material of the connectors, and the number and spacing of the concrete studs.
The deformable shear connectors joining the two different material layers are modelled as distributed shear springs along the beam length at their interface.
In addition, a finite element model of CFS walls under axial compression was developed and is described in detail, including element type, applied load definition, material properties, screw connectors, and initial imperfections.
