DURABILITY OF PRECAST TILED WALL PANELS

Abstract

The durability of external precast tiled concrete wall panels was evaluated through a study on the fatigue performance of the tile-concrete interfacial bond. A simple probabilistic approach was adopted to develop design criteria for durability in accordance with reliability-based design concept. Temperature loadings on wall panels were investigated and field measurements of air, surface and interfacial temperatures were made. Eccentric cyclic compression tests were performed on specimens at different strain amplitudes to simulate the thermal fatigue process experienced by wall panels in service. Deterioration in the wall-to-tile bond strength was evaluated after predetermined numbers of cyclic loadings by pull-out bond tests and shear bond tests. The randomness of the temperature loadings and the variability of wall-to-tile bonding were experimentally estimated. They were used to obtain the probabilities of failure of the wall panel for a given service life corresponding to different allowable bond strengths. The results provide guidance for designers to formulate design checks for bond durability in the design of precast tiled wall panels.