Abstract
The use of structural glass in buildings is a growing trend, especially with glass beams, which are increasingly used to support roofs, floors, and glazed facades. However, beams consisting of glass laminates only expose a brittle behavior. To overcome this, research has been performed during the last decade to create structural glass beams with enhanced failure behavior. Among a variety of developments, the application of concepts obtained from concrete construction is very promising. Reinforced and posttensioned glass beams were developed and investigated, yielding good results with respect to failure behavior. This paper gives an overview of the research performed on both types up till now. For reinforced glass beams, categorization is made according to the different reinforcement materials. Although remarkable differences in structural performance exist between the different approaches, the majority of the concepts illustrated an enhanced failure behavior, characterized by significant postfracture strength and sufficient ductility. This enhanced robustness on element level is a huge step forward for the application of structural glass beams in practice. However, additional research and optimization is still required to arrive at practical application.
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Acknowledgments
The Agency for Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT) is gratefully acknowledged for supporting this work (grant no. 141526).
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Published In
Journal of Structural Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 5 • May 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 10, 2015
Accepted: Oct 6, 2015
Published online: Dec 29, 2015
Published in print: May 1, 2016
Discussion open until: May 29, 2016
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