Load-carrying behaviour of interrupted statically indeterminate reinforced laminated glass beams

Abstract

There is a trend for increasing the scale of structural glass components, which is possible e.g. due to industrial investments in ever larger autoclaves. As a result, load-bearing glass beams will increasingly be incorporated in more complex structural systems. Most important, these beams are required to provide structural safety both on an element level (the beam itself) and system level (a part of, or the whole structure). Past research has resulted in a multitude of possible hybrid glass beams which provide element safety when applied with statically determinate support conditions. In particular, the stainless steel reinforced glass beam has proved to be a promising concept. Moreover, the authors performed a test programme which proved the feasibility of applying the latter beams in statically indeterminate systems. However, due to production, transportation and on-site manoeuvrability limits, safe butt connections will be inevitable for the creation of large-scale beam systems. Currently, no transparent and safe connection detailing is available. As a result, a research project was initiated to develop a connection prototype making use of the beam’s reinforcement sections. This paper presents experimental test results of statically indeterminate five-point bending tests on reinforced laminated glass beams in which the glass section is interrupted at the central support. It was concluded that these hypothetical ‘connected’ beams provide safe load-carrying behaviour in all cases.