Study on fundamental mechanical properties of innovative composite sandwich structures and their engineering application

Innovative composite sandwich structures have attracted great fundamental and industrial interests because they can be used partly instead of steel and concrete using for structural engineering and construction. In this work, the fundamental mechanical properties and engineering applications of the innovative composite sandwich structures were investigated. At first, the mechanical properties of the innovative FRP sandwich composite structures in tension, compression, bending, shear, and torsion conditions were investigated. Furthermore, three interfacial reinforcement methods were employed to enhance the interface of the composite sandwich structures, including groove reinforced, perforate reinforced, and web reinforced methods. Among these, web reinforced method is critical to this novel structure. Additionally, the node connection of the composite sandwich structures is the key and difficult of design and application. Adherence I-shaped steel joints were used for node connection. Importantly, the engineering products of the innovative composite sandwich structures in civil engineering were exploited, including composite pavement matting, composite sheet piles, composite truss bridges, composite floating structures, composite collision avoidance facilities, and so on. With the additional advantages of light-weight, high strength, and corrosion resistance, this new structure can be exploited as an alternative method for manufacturing large structures using in civil engineering field.