Asymmetric high performance SIPS panels for loadbearing walls

This research will focus on the application of sandwich panels as structural wall components and will discuss methods to determine and improve the structural capacity of a panel by adding stiffeners, internally and/or externally, or by increasing the thickness of the faces. The paper presented here can be seen as a progress report on the ongoing research efforts carried out at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), in cooperation with industry, to provide scientific and experimental backgrounds to a building component which is widely used for residential housing. A Structural Insulated Panel System (SIPS) with stiffeners as presented in this paper are meant for load bearing walls; these panels are researched analytically, numerically and experimentally. Previous reports were presented at WCTE 2012 [1], WCTE 2014 [2] and WCTE 2016 [3]. The results presented in this paper demonstrate the significant role of load transfer through the core and its influence on the stress distribution. Symmetrical stiffening both faces will increase the bending stiffness of the panel considerably, but hardly influences the load distribution. Creating asymmetrical sandwich panels, i.e one face thicker or with higher Youngs modulus, will have a large influence on the distribution of loads and therefore the structural behaviour of the sandwich panel.