| SPS (sandwich plate system) panel has been developed as a replacement for the stiffened steel plate because of its higher bending stiffness and reduced fabrication effort. Although SPS panels have mostly been used in maritime structures such as for the rehabilitation of ship decks, new applications such as in bridge decks are emerging.Three identical SPS panels 1200x1800 mm with fixed boundary conditions under combined in-plane and lateral loads were tested by Little (2007). An interaction diagram between the lateral and in-plane load capacity was obtained by testing the panels under three lateral load levels of 13%, 27% and 45% of the yield line load level. In this study, finite element models are validated based on these tests and a parametric study of the sandwich panel with varying aspect ratios, panel thickness, and lateral load levels is completed to expand the database of test results. A simple method to calculate deflections in sandwich panels by deriving shear flexibility factors will be derived in this study. |
