DEVELOPMENT AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONOF ADVANCED LIGHTWEIGHT SANDWICH PANELS


EOI: 10.11242/viva-tech.01.09.16

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Citation

Akshay Mistry, Antariksha Patil, Vaibhav Saxena, Prakash Avhad, "DEVELOPMENT AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONOF ADVANCED LIGHTWEIGHT SANDWICH PANELS", VIVA-IJRI Volume 1, Issue 9, Article 02, pp. 1-11, 2026. Published by Civil Engineering Department, VIVA Institute of Technology, Virar, India.

Abstract

India is undergoing rapid urbanization, creating an urgent demand for lightweight, sustainable, and high-performance construction systems suitable for mass housing. Conventional masonry construction methods are often associated with high self-weight, increased construction time, and limited thermal efficiency, making them less adaptable to modern prefabricated and modular building technologies. In the initial phase of this research, a cork–polycarbonate sandwich panel was developed and experimentally validated, demonstrating satisfactory compressive strength for partition wall applications. In the extended Phase-2 investigation, multiple alternative core and face materials including Expanded Polystyrene (EPS), Polyurethane (PU) foam, Rockwool, Fly-ash lightweight concrete, steel sheets, fibre cement boards, and carbon fiber composites were experimentally reviewed and analyzed through trial-based evaluation. However, several of these materials were found to have limitations such as inadequate fire resistance, excessive self-weight, higher cost, bonding incompatibility, or reduced sustainability performance for the intended application.Based on this systematic evaluation and elimination process, the present study proposes an advanced sandwich panel configuration incorporating agar-based aerogel as the core material, combined with high-performance face sheets including Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP), Polypropylene Copolymer (PPCP), and Ultra-High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE). The panels were fabricated using a controlled hand lay-up technique with epoxy bonding and subjected to mechanical and performance assessment. Results indicate that the agar-based aerogel core provides moderate compressive strength while offering very high thermal insulation and fire resistance characteristics. Among the face materials, GFRP demonstrated superior flexural stiffness, whereas UHMWPE showed enhanced impact resistance and lightweight efficiency. The developed system represents a super-efficient, sustainable, and structurally viable alternative for residential partition and modular construction applications.

Keywords

Agar-based aerogel, Bio-based composite core, Lightweight sandwich panels, Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer (GFRP), UHMWPE, PPCP, Sustainable construction materials, Thermal insulation performance, Fire-resistant structures, Modular housing systems.

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