INTRODUCTION Concrete is one of the most common construction materials. A challenge for engineers when using concrete is to overcome its heavy weight particularly in large span construction (Matthew and Bennett 1990). Basic concept in dealing with the weight is by minimizing the use of concrete while maintaining the desired strength and stiffness of the section. Using composite sandwich structures is a way to enhance the structural performance, at the same time makes it lighter and cost effective. Some of the works in the development of composite sandwich sections are by Schaumann et al. (2009) who introduced the concrete sandwich slab which consists of three layers, i.e., the glass fibre reinforced polymer element as the tension skin, lightweight concrete as core material and high performance concrete as the compression skin. Other types of composite sandwich sections are, for instance, composite sandwich panel by fiber glass laminate skin over PVC foam or polyester mat cores (Russo and Zuccarello 2006), sandwich beam with honey comb