Glass fiber reinforced gypsum (GFRG) walls are prefabricated large
gypsum panels with hollow cores. Developed in Australia in the early
1990s and subsequently adopted by other countries, including China,
India and GCC, this material is used in residential, commercial, and
industrial buildings. GFRG walls are used both architecturally and
structurally as walls and slabs, with no columns and beams required.
They have already found wide application, even without mature structural
design codes, largely because of their environmental friendliness. In
India, GFRG walls have been approved by the World Bank as being eligible
for Carbon Credits under the Kyoto Protocol. GFRG panels are a composite
material consisting of gypsum plaster and glass fiber . When the
cavities are filled with reinforced concrete, the interaction between
the concrete and the GFRG panels produces another composite. As a
result, the structural behavior of GFRG walls and the associated
building system are more complicated than that of conventional
structural systems.
This paper presents the
results of extensive experimental and theoretical investigations into
the structural behavior of GFRG walls, and offers a structural design
methodology for GFRG walls and the associated building system.