ULTIMATE FLEXURAL STRENGTH AND LONG-TERM CREEP DEFLECTION FOR STRUCTURAL INSULATED FOAM-TIMBER SANDWICH PANELS

摘要

The structural insulated panel (SIP) is a sandwich structured composite that is prefabricated by attaching a lightweight thick core made of Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) foam laminated between two thin, and stiff face skins made of Oriented Strand Board (OSB). The use of sandwich panels provides key benefits over conventional materials including: very low weight; high stiffness; durability and; production and construction cost savings. The facing skins of the sandwich panel can be considered as the flanges for the I-beam carrying bending stresses in which one face skin is subjected to tension, and the other is in compression. The core resists the shear loads and stabilizes the skin faces together giving uniformly stiffened panel. OSB is wood product that shrinks when dry and swells when adsorb moisture either due to liquid or vapor from the surrounding atmosphere. The relative combination of relative humidity and temperature is introduced into the equilibrium moisture content (EMC) that increases with the increase of the relative humidity and with decreasing temperature. Experimental test matrix includes testing 2.44 m (8') and 4.88 m (16') long SIPs for 5 years under different sustained loads and weather resistive barriers (WRBs), recording creep deflection, relative humidity and temperature. After creep recovery, the SIPs are loaded to-collapse to determine their flexural strength.