EXPERIMENTAL TESTS ON BENDING BEHAVIOR OF PROFILED STEEL SHEETING DRY BOARD COMPOSITE FLOOR WITH GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE INFILL

Abstract

PROFILED STEEL SHEET DRY BOARD (PSSDB) SYSTEM IS A LIGHTWEIGHT COMPOSITE STRUCTURE COMPRISES PROFILED STEEL SHEETING AND DRY BOARD CONNECTED BY SELF-DRILLING AND SELF-TAPPING SCREWS. THIS STUDY INTRODUCED GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE, AN ECO-FRIENDLY MATERIAL WITHOUT CEMENT CONTENT AS AN INFILL MATERIAL IN THE PSSDB FLOOR SYSTEM TO HIGHLIGHT ITS EFFECT ONTO THE PSSDB (WITH FULL AND HALF-SIZE DRY BOARDS) FLOOR SYSTEMÂS STIFFNESS AND STRENGTH. EXPERIMENTAL TESTS ON VARIOUS FULL SCALE PSSDB FLOOR SPECIMENS WERE CONDUCTED UNDER UNIFORMLY DISTRIBUTED TRANSVERSE LOADS. RESULTS ILLUSTRATE THAT THE RIGIDITY OF THE PANEL WITH GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE INFILL WITH HALF-SIZE DRY BOARD (HBGPC) INCREASES BY 43% RELATIVE TO THAT OF THE PANEL WITH NORMAL CONCRETE INFILL WITH FULL-SIZE DRY BOARD (FBNC). THE DEVELOPED FINITE-ELEMENT MODELING (FEM) SUCCESSFULLY PREDICTS THE BEHAVIOR OF FBGPC MODEL WITH 94.8% ACCURACY. GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE INFILL AND DRY BOARD SIZE INFLUENCE THE STRENGTH PANEL, INFILL CONTACT STIFFNESS, AND MID-SPAN DEFLECTION OF THE PROFILED STEEL SHEETING/DRY BOARD (PSSDB) FLOORING SYSTEM.