Flexural performance study of assembled GFRP-wood sandwich floor panels reinforced with innovative lattice webs

Glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) sandwich structures are considered as optimal designs for carrying bending loads. In this paper, a new lattice-web reinforced GFRP-wood sandwich floor panels has been developed. For this new concept, GFRP is used at the outer surfaces and internal webs to maximize rigidity while introducing in between lightweight wood cores adhesively bonded to keep the whole structure together. Vacuum assisted resin infusion methods are used for manufacturing this new structure are used. An experimental study was carried out to evaluate the stiffness and strength properties of the floor panels by four-point bending test. The results showed that implementation of GFRP webs in the sandwich panels considerably improved their flexural performance, in association with a ductile failure process and certain residual load-carrying capacity.The bearing capacity of the sandwich decks increased by up to 54.1% while the midspan displacement decreased by 56.6% with an increase in the height of the lattice-webs or a change in the wood core material.