In the evolution of structural glass beam elements, the requirements for post-fracture load bearing capacity and safe failure behaviour have led to the development of reinforced and post-tensioned beams. Maximum bending capacity in the post-fracture state is normally associated with extensive yielding of the reinforcement, providing a safe failure mechanism through apparent ductility of the composite beam section. This can be achieved as long as the propagation of primary flexural cracks does not compromise the transfer of shear from the load points to the supports. Although shear failure is typically not critical for the ultimate limit state design of ’normal’ unreinforced glass beams, it may govern the load-bearing and deformation capacity in the post-fracture state for reinforced and post-tensioned glass beams. This paper presents exploratory experiments and initial analysis of the shear failure phenomenon in the post-fracture state of reinforced and post-tensioned glass beams. Potential shear transfer mechanisms are identified based on the critical shear crack theory developed for reinforced concrete members and applied in the analysis of shear failures observed in four-point bending tests of post-tensioned glass beams. The behaviour of fractured laminated glass under mixed-mode (tension+shear) loading is explored on a limited set of small-scale double-notched glass specimens, demonstrating the feasibility of the applied test methodology. Preliminary findings of the present study may serve as a basis for further investigations of shear resistance of glass beams. Typical shear failure kinematics and suitable constitutive laws of the applied materials need further investigation in order to provide design recommendations for the prediction of shear resistance of reinforced and post-tensioned glass beams.

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The effectiveness of post-tensioning in enhancing the fracture resistance of glass beams depends on the level of compressive pre-stress introduced at the glass edge surface that will in service be exposed to tensile stresses induced by bending. Maximum pre-load that can be applied in a post-tensioned glass beam system, yielding maximum compressive pre-stress, is limited by various failure mechanisms which might occur during post-tensioning. In this paper, failure mechanisms are identified for a post-tensioned glass beam system with a flat stainless steel tendon adhesively bonded at the bottom glass edge, including the rupture of the tendon, glass failure in tension and adhesive/glass failure in the load introduction zone. Special attention is given to the load introduction failure given that the transparent nature of glass limits the use of vertical confinement usually applied in concrete. An analytical model for determination of the allowable pre-load in post-tensioned glass beams is proposed, based on the model applied for externally post-tensioned concrete beams. The model is verified with the results of a numerical model, showing good correlation, and applied in a parametric study to determine the influence of various beam parameters on the effectiveness of post-tensioning glass beams.

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The concept of post-tensioned glass beams builds on the concrete analogy of the reinforced glass beams. By additionally prestressing the reinforcement in a post-tensioned system, a compressive pre-stress is applied on the glass, enhancing the initial fracture resistance in bending. This paper presents three post-tensioned beam systems tested in four-point bending. The effects of both adhesive bonding and mechanical anchoring of tendons are explored in order to define an optimised beam system which can provide a significant level of compressive pre-stress and maximise the efficient use of material. The tests demonstrate the feasibility of post-tensioning by providing a substantial level of additional load capacity and redundancy to commonly applied laminated glass beams. Several specimens have demonstrated premature failure governed by lateral-torsional buckling or by shear. Since glass beams are generally not strengthened through transversal reinforcement, as concrete elements, further investigation of the mechanism of shear failure is particularly important. Analytical models, based on the pre-stressed concrete theory, provide expressions for determination of the initial fracture resistance, initial stiffness and ultimate flexural capacity. Compared with the experimental results, the models provide close prediction values for the initial fracture loads, while the predictions of the initial stiffness and ultimate post-fracture load capacity show less consistency. Closer prediction requires a better understanding of the effect of specific anchoring, the level of composite action and the post-fracture behaviour of laminated glass (including long-term and temperature effects).

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This paper investigates the structural response of laminated glass beams under combined fire-exposure and sustained in-plane loading. This is done by means of experimental testing and Finite Element (FE) numerical modelling. Firstly, small-scale (1 m long) laminated glass beams are tested under thermal exposure and in-plane loading on a small fire resistance test furnace. From the test results it can be seen that laminated glass beams are able to sustain an imposed in-plane load for a time of 34–51 min before failing according to the limiting rate of deflection as defined in EN 1363–1:2012. It should be noted, however, that the observed failure times are strictly related to the boundary conditions applied in the test, i.e. the magnitude of mechanical loads (in this study a relatively small load of P = 1.15 kN was applied) and the presence of an inherent top zone protection, which may have positively affected the results. Secondly, additional FE thermo-mechanical simulations are performed to further investigate the mechanical response of the laminated glass beams under thermal exposure, with a focus on the effects of the top zone protection and the load magnitude on the performance of the examined laminated glass beams. From the FE study it can be seen that reducing the top zone protection (from 40 mm to 0 mm) results in a reduction in failure time from 45 min to 20 min, while increasing the load with a factor 5 (taking 30 mm top zone protection as a reference) results in a reduction of failure time from 32 to 18 min.@en

Structural adhesive connections for glass applications have been widely investigated in the past years, because of their enhanced mechanical performance when compared to bolted connections. However, due to the lack of established design methods and failure criteria, laboratory tests must always be performed, when adhesive connections are used in real-world structural applications. Because of the above, this work presents the analytical development of a Generalized Triaxial Model (here called GTM) that describes a novel failure criterion for adhesive materials in structural glass applications. This is done developing a generalized triaxial model defined over the three-dimensional stress space, which accounts for the non-linear effects of strain rate and temperature variation. The main output of this work is a five-dimensional formulation that allows to account for a generic stress state by a governing equation expressed as a function of the three-dimensional stress tensor. Both deviatoric and hydrostatic energetic components are taken into consideration by means of a non-linear function of the two contributions. The governing equation is represented in the stress space by a revolution surface that is axial-symmetric with respect to the hydrostatic axis, thus independent of the third stress invariant. The proposed model is suitable for isotropic materials and it is here applied to SentryGlas and TSSA, two adhesive materials used in structural glass applications, for which extensive test campaigns have been performed but for which no failure criteria are available yet in literature. Firstly, the proposed model is analytically compared to other existing general failure criteria. It is shown that some of the existing models that can be found in literature can be seen as a particular case of the proposed model. Then, the model is compared with the experimental results under different loading conditions, strain rates and temperatures. The results are found to be in line with the model predictions for both materials. Additional tensile-torsion tests are also performed to validate the proposed model at varying values of the hydrostatic angle.@en

This paper presents a study on post-tensioned glass beams in a statically indeterminate system. In order to increase the safety of structural glass beams, ductile reinforcement can be added to glass beam sections providing secondary load carrying mechanism in case of glass breakage. In the here investigated post-tensioned system, the reinforcement tendons are additionally pre-tensioned, introducing compressive pre-stress in the beam in order to increase the apparent tensile strength of glass. The system is tested in five-point bending at 23°C and 60°C in order to investigate the basic structural performance and the influence of temperature increase on the initial cracking load and the behaviour of the cracked beam. The benefit of the here investigated statically indeterminate system is a more economical design, i.e. lowering of the bending moment in the span of an equivalent simply supported system by continuing the beam over the central support. The efficiency of the applied system is compared to a reinforced beam system produced in the same batch with similar overall dimensions. The results show an increase of initial cracking load of the post-tensioned beams due to the applied pre-stress and a ductile post-cracking response, reaching high ultimate loads prior to failure. At 60°C both reinforced and post-tensioned beams show lower initial cracking loads and limited post-cracking ductility but still significant load reserve with ultimate loads well above the initial cracking loads, providing safe failure behaviour.@en

In the last years, a novel typology of adhesive connections for structural glass application has emerged, known as laminated adhesive connections, which makes use of the transparent ionomer SentryGlas® (SG) from Kuraray and the Transparent Structural Silicon Adhesive (TSSA) from Dow Corning. Despite being used in several projects, limited information is available in literature on their mechanical behaviour and on the effects of strain rate and temperature. In this work the behaviour of laminated connections under tensile loading is studied by means of experimental, analytical and numerical analyses. The experimental investigations show that temperature and strain rate variations have important effects on the mechanical response of the connections. Two main interesting phenomena are also observed: the whitening phenomenon in TSSA and the development of bubble within the SG adhesive. The analytical studies of the stress state show that confinement state of the adhesive induces a non-uniform three-dimensional stress distribution in the adhesive with a dominant hydrostatic component of the stress tensor, which is observed to be in agreement with the experimental results. Three-dimensional finite numerical analyses show that the stress field deviates from the uniform distribution with a large gradient of hydrostatic and deviatoric stresses over the adhesive area. The output of the finite numerical model are then compared with the observations of the experimental campaigns. Herein, the full set of numerical results is synthetized by the definition of so-called stress factors. The latter allow to derive the three-dimensional stress state in the adhesive at different temperatures and to compute the stress peak in the non-linear stress field distribution. Finally, prediction models are proposed for the tensile resistance of TSSA and SG laminated connections. A logarithmic law is proposed for the strain rate effects for both TSSA and SG connections. Linear and inverse hyperbolic-tangent-based laws are instead proposed for the TSSA and SG temperature effects, respectively.@en

Connections between structural glass components represent one of the main critical aspects of glass engineering. In the last years, a novel typology of adhesive connections has emerged, known as laminated adhesive connections. Two adhesive materials for laminated connections in glass applications are used in this work: the transparent ionomer SentryGlas® (SG) from Kuraray and the Transparent Structural Silicon Adhesive (TSSA) from Dow Corning. Both SG and TSSA show a complex behaviour dependent on strain rate and temperature. This work presents a study that aims (i) to investigate the mechanical behaviour and strength of this connection typology under shear loading and (ii) to quantify the effects of strain rate and temperature on the strength of the connections. This is done by means of a combined experimental, analytical and numerical study on laminated connections made of circular metal connectors bonded to rectangular glass plates. The experimental investigations presented in this work showed that temperature and strain rate variations have important effects on the mechanical response of the connections. Three-dimensional numerical analyses showed a non-uniform stress field with large gradient over the three dimensions. Through analytical studies, prediction models are finally proposed for the shear resistance of TSSA and SG laminated connections. The models are obtained developing an algorithm for multi-dimensional non-linear models with variable standard deviations. A logarithmic law is proposed for the strain rate effects for both TSSA and SG connections. Linear and inverse hyperbolic-tangent-based laws are instead proposed for the TSSA and SG temperature behaviour respectively.@en

An innovative type of connections for glass components, called laminated connections, has been developed in the last years. Two materials have been used for laminated connections: the transparent ionomer SentryGlas® (SG) from Kuraray (former Dupont) and the Transparent Structural Silicon Adhesive (TSSA) from Dow Corning. In this paper, the mechanical behaviour of SG and TSSA bulk materials is studied under uniaxial tensile stress condition. The effects of strain rate and temperature variations are investigated. Particular attention is paid (i) to the study of these polymers in cured condition and (ii) to the computation of true stress and strain field during the tests. Firstly, it is observed that the mechanical behaviour of both SG and TSSA are temperature and strain rate dependent. These effects are quantitatively determined in the paper. Secondly, two additional phenomena are observed. For TSSA, it is observed that the material goes from fully transparent to white colour, exhibiting the so-called whitening phenomenon. For SG, instead, it is observed that the strain field distribution is dependent on the temperature. More specifically, the material exhibits a non-uniform strain field distribution due to the occurring of the necking phenomenon. Measurements along the specimens, using Digital Image Correlation techniques, showed that the localized strain propagates over the full specimen length, resulting in a cold-drawing phenomenon. Finally, it is also shown that engineering and true stress–strain definition exhibits large deviation indicating that the finite deformation theory should be used for the computation of the stress–strain curves to be implemented in numerical modelling.@en

Exploratory fire testing of small-scale structural glass beams is presented in this paper. Three 1m glass beams, loaded in in-plane bending, are spanned over a small-scale fire testing furnace thereby exposing the lower part of the beams to direct fire loading. Annealed, heat-strengthened and fully tempered PVB-laminated glass beams are tested. From the results initial tendencies in the structural response of glass beams under fire loading can be derived. It can be seen that, under the given test conditions, the beams can resist the fire loading for a significant duration of time. However, specific test conditions such as a relatively low in-plane load and a non-exposed top edge of the glass beams may have positively influenced the test results. Additional analysis and testing is therefore foreseen.@en

The use of glass material for structural components has drastically increased in the last decade. Among others, a laminated connection is a type of adhesive joint that makes use of foil interlayer adhesive to transfer forces between glass and metal parts. In this work, the use of embedded laminated connections is studied as connection between glass beams. In particular, it is experimentally investigated the use of embedded connections laminated to make a moment joint between laminated glass beam segments. The mechanical behaviour of such glass beams with embedded laminated connections is studied under different loading scenario. Tests are performed under monotonic, creep and damage protocol. Different geometry and location of the embedded laminated connections are compared. The results of this work showed that embedded laminated connections represent an efficient means of load transfer between glass beams. It is observed that the choice of an appropriate geometry and location of the embedded connections can provide a substantial enhancement to the mechanical behaviour of the beam. In particular, a redundant and ductile structural behaviour of the moment connection can be achieved. Furthermore, results also showed that beams with embedded laminated connections are able to resist to severe damage scenarios and to sustain the applied load over time, even in the case of breakage of all glass panels.@en