The integration of photovoltaic panels, greenery and curtain walls into functional façades is increasingly becoming essential to meet sustainability demands. Sandwich panels, composed of two thin steel sheets and polyisocyanurate rigid foam (PIR) or mineral wool cores in between, provide thermal insulation, airtightness and lightweight load-bearing capacity, while more recently also serving as substructure for secondary façade layers. However, the absence of standardized design principles for the resulting eccentric loads requires elaborate testing for technical approvals, which limits their potential applications. In this paper, the influence of a second panel, interlocked by joints, on the flexural and torsional structural behavior of the eccentrically loaded panel was studied with experimental, numerical and analytical methods. The identified stiffening effect supports the development of reliable, cost-effective sandwich façades tailored to the evolving needs of society.
Pradhan et al. (Wed,) studied this question.