Behavior of T-shaped sandwich composite walls with truss connectors under eccentric compression

Sandwich composite walls are composed of two external steel faceplates and concrete infill and have been increasingly applied in infrastructure to resist either gravity or lateral loads. They combine the advantages of both steel and concrete and offer excellent structural behavior. In this paper, the performance of a new type of T-shaped sandwich composite walls with truss connectors was studied. Three full-scaled specimens with T-section were tested under eccentric compression. The failure mode was identified as the sectional strength failure. Load versus axial and out-of-plane displacement responses, buckling stress, axial stiffness, ductility, and strength utilization were discussed. Based on CECS 159, the interaction model between the compression and bending moment was proposed to estimate the sectional strength of sandwich composite walls under eccentric compression. The comparison between the test data and the proposed curve shows that the proposed method offers reasonable and conservative predictions on the strength of sandwich composite walls. •Full-scaled test was conducted on new type of T-shaped sandwich wall.•Structural performance was comprehensively discussed.•Design method was proposed.