Torsional behavior of composite shear walls and load‐bearing sandwich panels: An experimental investigation

This study aims to experimentally investigate the torsional behavior of acrylic latex polymer and alkali‐resistant glass fiber‐reinforced composite shear walls and load‐bearing sandwich panels. Also, this study was aimed to experimentally examine the changes in the torsional moment capacities, twist angle values, energy dissipation capacities, ductility index, and rigidity of the samples for the presence of the additives added to concrete, size, presence of reinforcement in sandwich panels, and effect of sandwich panels. Within the scope of this work, a control sample, two composite shear walls, and two sandwich panels were produced (1500 × 1200 × 150 mm). While adding 5% acrylic latex to the concrete phase of one of the composite shear wall groups, in the other group, both 5% acrylic latex and 1% alkali‐resistant glass fibers were added to the concrete. While the core structure of the sandwich panel group is reinforced, the other group is produced without reinforcement. A total of 10 samples were loaded out of the plane and a torsional moment is created. As a result of the experiment, the torsional moment, twist angle, and energy dissipation capacities were increased for the samples with acrylic latex and alkali‐resistant glass fiber. While glass fibers increased the ductility index of the test samples, they decreased the stiffness value. Acrylic latex, on the other hand, does not have much effect on the ductility index and stiffness value and increased its energy dissipation capacity. Reinforced sandwich panel samples presented greater torsional moment capacities and stiffnesses compared to composite walls, and less ultimate twist angles and energy dissipation capacities. In addition, although the experimental results of the sandwich panels without reinforcement are lower than the other groups, these also showed load‐bearing capability under the effect of the torsional moment.