Verification of the Structural Performance of Textile Reinforced Reactive Powder Concrete Sandwich Facade Elements  
[PERSON]  
1 Mechanics Research, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, 50115 Boras, Sweden; mathias.flansbjer@ri.  
the form of a sandwich element was developed using a combination of high-performance materials, such as Textile Reinforced Reactive Powder Concrete (TRRPC) for the facings, Foam Concrete (FC) for the insulating core, and glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) continuous connectors.  
The thickness and weight reduction of precast concrete has been successfully achieved by the development and application of new material alternatives. Conventional steel reinforcement has, for example, been replaced by textile reinforcement, while high-performance concrete, such as Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) or Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC), has replaced normal concrete. Lately, innovative facade elements have been produced using UHPC or Textile Reinforced Concrete (TRC), exemplified by ventilated facade cladding [3] and sandwich elements [4; 5; 6]. Progressively more UHPC (or RPC) has been applied in facade applications, as this composite material has revealed extraordinary features, such as durability and high strength [7; 8; 9]. By embedding textile reinforcement in this type of matrix, so-called Textile Reinforced Reactive Powder Concrete (TRRPC), a versatile precast product [10] which enhances the post-cracking behavior of high-strength concrete [5; 11; 12] can be assembled.  
The design and verification of novel facade elements are typically realized by means of experiments combined with numerical modelling. Small-scale tests at the material or component levels can be initially conducted to gain knowledge related to flexural and composite behaviors of the developed elements. Full-scale testing can thereafter be performed to evaluate the structural performance according to e.g., service and ultimate loads. An example of this approach was presented in [13], wherein the structural performance of precast concrete sandwich facings developed with a system of FRP connectors was analyzed via small-scale and full-scale testing coupled with numerical analysis. Another study focused on the experimental testing of components, so-called small-scale, paired with the numerical analysis of the mechanical behavior of full-scale sandwich facings while using inverse analysis and relevant codes for parameter estimation [14; 15; 16]. The flexural behavior of TRC sandwich facings was investigated both experimentally and numerically in various works [17; 18]. Moreover, multiscale mechanical modelling of TRC sandwich facings (i.e., micro, meso and macro) compared to macroscopic modelling in connection with experimental verification has also been shown to effectively predict the structural behavior of such elements [19].  
This paper presents the validation of the structural performance of the developed TRRPC sandwich facade elements. Validation was established by means of a thorough experimental program coupled with finite element analysis (FEA). Within the SESBE project, experiments were conducted on individual materials (i.e., tensile and compressive tests) [11; 20], composites (i.e., uniaxial tensile, flexural and pull-out tests) [21] and components (i.e., local anchorage failure, shear, flexural and wind loading tests) [22; 23; 24]. The experimentally yielded material properties were used as input for numerical models to better understand the findings of various component tests and allow for further material development. In this paper, a structural model of the element under wind loading was validated via experimental results. Lastly, this model was expanded to a full-size sandwich element with and without openings to further facilitate the prediction and analysis of its structural performance in relation to a given design scenario and SLS and ULS requirements.