FIRE SAFETY OF STRUCTURAL INSULATED PANELS, USED IN CONSTRUCTION

The article is devoted to the consideration of one of the modern technologies for the construction of buildings and structures using SIP panels. The features of fire safety of buildings erected using SIP panels are analyzed. The result of the study is the assumption of the possibility of using structures made of SIP panels for the construction of social infrastructure facilities, especially in conditions of limited availability, the fire hazard of the buildings being erected compared to other traditional materials is estimated

A Life Cycle Cost Analysis of Structural Insulated Panels for Residential Buildings in a Hot and Arid Climate

In hot and humid climatic conditions, cooling tends to dominate building thermal energy use. Cooling loads can be reduced through the adoption of efficient building envelope materials, such as Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs). This study quantifies the life cycle cost and operational energy of a representative case-study house in Bahrain using SIPs and hollow concrete blocks (HCBs) for the envelope over a period of 50 years. Operational energy is calculated using a dynamic energy simulation tool, operational costs are calculated based on the energy demand and local tariff rates, and construction costs are estimated using market prices and quotations. The life cycle cost is quantified using the Net Present Cost technique. Results show that SIPs yield a 20.6% reduction in cooling energy use compared to HCBs. For SIP costs of 12 and 17 USD/m², the SIP house was cheaper throughout, or had a higher capital cost than the HCB house (breaking even in year 33), respectively. We propose policy recommendations with respect to material pricing, electricity tariffs, and energy efficiency, to improve the operational energy efficiency of houses in Bahrain and similar countries along the Arabian Peninsula.

Edgewise Compressive Behavior of Composite Structural Insulated Panels with Magnesium Oxide Board Facings

Edgewise compression response of a composite structural insulated panel (CSIP) with magnesium oxide board facings was investigated. The discussed CSIP is a novel multifunctional sandwich panel introduced to the housing industry as a part of the wall, floor, and roof assemblies. The study aims to propose a computational tool for reliable prediction of failure modes of CSIPs subjected to concentric and eccentric axial loads. An advanced numerical model was proposed that includes geometrical and material nonlinearity as well as incorporates the material bimodularity effect to achieve accurate and versatile failure mode prediction capability. Laboratory tests on small-scale CSIP samples of three different slenderness ratios and full-scale panels loaded with three different eccentricity values were carried out, and the test data were compared with numerical results for validation. The finite element (FE) model successfully captured CSIP’s inelastic response in uniaxial compression and when flexural action was introduced by eccentric loads or buckling and predicted all failure modes correctly. The comprehensive validation showed that the proposed approach could be considered a robust and versatile aid in CSIP design.